2011 Season

The 2011 Gunnison sage-grouse season at the Waunita lek was a big success! A big thank you to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Sisk-a-dee, Western State College, and Dr. Pat Magee. And a special thanks to all the volunteers for dedicating their time to educate visitors on the grouse and lek, as well as collecting daily data on the sage grouse and visitors. This was the first year since the site's development in 2004, that every volunteer made it to the lek on each assigned day - we had perfect attendance and monitored all 40 days of the season!

And thanks to all the visitors, both in the parking lot and in the trailor, for being respectful to the site and the birds. 2011 boasted one of the lowest protocol violations made throughout the entire season.

Below is a summary, taken from the 2011 final report, of counts, flush times, and visitors from April 1, 2011 to May 10, 2011.

Waunita Lek: 2011 Daily Summary Statistics

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
		March 29 Total Birds: 32 Males: 14 Females: 18 Flushed: 0726 Reason: Unknown People: 11 Cars: 4	March 30 Preseason No data	March 31 Preseason No data	April 1 Total Birds: 43 Males: 19 Females: 24 Flushed: 0717 Reason: Unknown People: 11 Cars: 6	April 2 Total Birds: 45 Males: 27 Females: 18 Flushed: 0632 Reason: metal bang noise People: 10 Cars: 5
April 3 Total Birds: 33 Males: 19 Females: 14 Flushed: 0650 Reason: Golden eagle People: 23 Cars: 8	April 4 Total Birds: 33 Males: 19 Females: 14 Flushed: 0640 Reason: Unknown People: 22 Cars: 4	April 5 Total Birds: 51 Males: 21 Females: 30 Flushed: 0739 Reason: Unknown People: 4 Cars: 3	April 6 Total Birds: 36 Males: 13 Females: 23 Flushed: 0655 Reason: Unknown People: 17 Cars: 7	April 7 Total Birds: 20 Males: 12 Females: 8 Flushed: 0635 Reason: Golden eagle People: 9 Cars:6	April 8 Total Birds: 24 Males: 13 Females: 11 Flushed: 0709 Reason: Coyotes People: 26 Cars: 6	April 9 Total Birds: 22 Males: 15 Females: 7 Flushed: 0619 Reason: Golden eagle People: 23 Cars: 10
April 10 Total Birds: 17 Males: 10 Females:7 Flushed: 0619 Reason: Elk and coyote People: 7 Cars: 3	April 11 Total Birds: 18 Males: 9 Females: 9 Flushed: 0616 Reason: Unknown People: 16 Cars: 5	April 12 Total Birds: 17 Males: 8 Females: 9 Flushed: 0703 Reason: Coyotes and magpies People: 27 Cars: 9	April 13 Total Birds: 15 Males: 12 Females: 3 Flushed: 0627 Reason: Golden eagle People: 21 Cars: 9	April 14 Total Birds: 19 Males: 14 Females: 5 Flushed: 0618 Reason: Unknown People: 24 Cars: 5	April 15 Total Birds: 17 Males: 12 Females: 5 Flushed: 0652 Reason: Unknown People: 20 Cars: 4	April 16 Total Birds: 19 Males: 19 Females: 0 Flushed: 0647 Reason: Unknown People: 24 Cars: 16
April 17 Total Birds: 17 Males: 13 Females: 4 Flushed: 0612 Reason: Golden eagle People: 29 Cars: 14	April 18 Total Birds: 10 Males: 10 Females: 0 Flushed: 0656 Reason: Golden eagle People: 31 Cars:7	April 19 Total Birds: 6 Males: 5 Females:1 Flushed: 0555 Reason: Unknown People: 28 Cars: 8	April 20 Total Birds: 11 Males: 8 Females: 3 Flushed: 0556 Reason: Mallards People: 19 Cars: 5	April 21 Total Birds: 14 Males: 11 Females: 3 Flushed: 0614 Reason: Weather People: 28 Cars: 6	April 22 Total Birds: 4 Males: 4 Females: 0 Flushed: 0605 Reason: Unknown People: 11 Cars: 3	April 23 Total Birds: 8 Males: 6 Females:23 Flushed: 0604 Reason: Unknown People: 24 Cars: 10
April 24 Total Birds: 4 Males: 4 Females: 0 Flushed: 0548 Reason: Unknown People: 4 Cars: 3	April 25 Total Birds:6 Males: 6 Females: 0 Flushed: 0601 Reason: Unknown People: 1 Cars: 1	April 26 Total Birds: 7 Males: 5 Females: 2 Flushed: 0549 Reason: Unknown People: 1 Cars: 1	April 27 Total Birds: 9 Males: 7 Females: 2 Flushed: 0609 Reason: Unknown People: 2 Cars: 2	April 28 Total Birds: 23 Males: 18 Females: 5 Flushed: 0606 Reason: Unknown People: 10 Cars: 4	April 29 Total Birds: 12 Males: 12 Females: 0 Flushed: 0550 Reason: Unknown People: 13 Cars: 4	April 30 Total Birds: 17 Males: 13 Females: 4 Flushed: 0726 Reason: Unknown People: 20 Cars: 6
May 1 Total Birds: 14 Males: 13 Females: 1 Flushed: 0650 Reason: Unknown People: 1 Cars: 1	May 2 Total Birds: 17 Males: 16 Females: 1 Flushed: 0719 Reason: Unknown People: 3 Cars: 2	May 3 Total Birds: 16 Males: 12 Females: 4 Flushed: 0628 Reason: Unknown People: 3 Cars: 2	May 4 Total Birds: 15 Males: 12 Females: 3 Flushed: 0708 Reason: Unknown People: 1 Cars: 1	May 5 Total Birds: 16 Males: 14 Females: 2 Flushed: 0640 Reason: Unknown People: 5 Cars: 2	May 6 Total Birds: 20 Males: 15 Females: 5 Flushed: 0638 Reason: Geese People: 4 Cars: 2	May 7 Total Birds: 13 Males: 13 Females: 0 Flushed: 0715 Reason: Unknown People: 3 Cars: 2
May 8 Total Birds: 18 Males: 16 Females: 2 Flushed: 0656 Reason: Golden eagle People: 9 Cars: 5	May 9 Total Birds: 19 Males: 16 Females: 3 Flushed: 0548 Reason: Unknown People: 1 Cars: 1	May 10 Total Birds: 13 Males: 9 Females: 4 Flushed: 0554 Reason: Unknown People: 1 Cars: 1

If you'd like more information about viewing the Gunnison sage-grouse please visit http://www.siskadee.org/. There, you will find contact information, protocols, and etc. The Siskadee site will be updated further in the fall of 2011.

Rebecca
Waunita Watchable Wildlife Program Coordinator 2011 & 2012