It, too, is important to migrating birds. Monitoring the effects of grazing and prescribed fires on wildlife habitat is important for determining the health of the environment and individual wildlife species. Monitoring techniques vary. For example, pairs of ducks on wetlands are counted each spring, with follow-up monitoring of nesting success. The males dance on the same dancing ground or lek, but each within his own territory.
Females visit leks to shop for a mate.
While there may be 10-40 males on each of Lostwood's 40 leks, only two or three males do the breeding on each lek. The best time to see the grouse on the lek is late April or early May, at least a half hour before to one hour after sunrise. Notice how the lek is beaten down and scattered with numerous droppings from the males. Look for hollowed areas in each territory where the males squat down during nonactive times. After a succession of dry years, when little or no rain or snowmelt flows into the wetlands or seeps into the local groundwaters, the water table drops, and all the wetlands, except major lakes, go dry.