Leks

15 leks along the East Atlantic Flyway, from Norway to Angola: when each one peaks, where to go on your own, what it costs and what you will hear. Wild animals only, no zoos.

Best time, place by place

Where to go, north to south

• Capercaillie and black grouse leks in the eastern forestsNorway · Lek · peak 15 Apr–5 MayCapercaillie's clicking, cork-pop and grinding song from pine bog edges, wing-beats of cocks flying in, black grouse bubbling on the open bogs; cranes, whooper swans and Tengmalm's owl in the same nights.
• Great snipe lek at FokstumyraNorway · Lek · peak 25 May–15 JunThe great snipe's extraordinary accelerating clicks, rattles and whistles from a group of males displaying on the bog, ruff males in silent lek nearby, whimbrel bubbling, bluethroat song, cranes bugling, snipe drumming everywhere, willow grouse cackling.
• Black grouse leksUnited Kingdom · Lek · peak 1 Apr–30 AprBubbling 'rookooing' from displaying males, hissing 'tchu-wee' sneezes and flutter jumps; curlew and snipe often in the same soundscape.
• Great bustard display, Havelland and BelzigGermany · Lek · peak 25 Mar–30 AprBustards are essentially silent — the display is visual ('foam bath'); what you hear is the wet-meadow dawn: lapwing, curlew, skylark, whinchat, snipe drumming, crane pairs bugling, geese, and later corncrake.
• Capercaillie and black grouse — the ones you do not visitGermany · Lek · peak 5 Apr–30 AprThe capercaillie's accelerating clicks, 'cork-pop' and grinding — a very quiet song (audible to ~200 m) that is almost never recorded in Germany without a permit. Black grouse bubbling in the Alps.
• La Crau steppe: little bustard, sandgrouse & stone-curlewFrance · Lek · peak 20 Apr–31 MayLittle bustards' dry 'prrrt' with a foot-stamp and wing-whirr jump, sandgrouse 'catar-catar' flights to drinking pools, calandra larks in continuous song-flight, stone-curlews at dusk.
• Black grouse leks in the AlpsFrance · Lek · peak 25 Apr–25 MayBubbling 'rookooing' and hissing from males on snow patches at the treeline, ring ouzels, water pipits, and meltwater.
• Black grouse leks in the Alps and JuraSwitzerland · Lek · peak 15 Apr–15 MayBubbling 'rookooing' rolling across a snow-patched alpine meadow from several cocks, sneezing 'tchu-shwee' hisses, wing-flutter jumps; ring ouzel and water pipit around them; cowbells not yet arrived.
• Great bustard display on the Parndorfer Platte and HanságAustria · Lek · peak 25 Mar–5 MayBustards are near-silent; the payload is the steppe dawn — skylark, corn bunting, quail, lapwing, grey partridge, crane pairs in the Hanság, marsh harrier, and the reed edge of the Neusiedler See a few kilometres away.
• Black grouse leks above the treelineAustria · Lek · peak 15 Apr–15 MayBubbling 'rookooing' and explosive hisses from several cocks on a snow-patched clearing, wing-flutter jumps, ring ouzel and ptarmigan croaks; cowbells arrive later in the season.
• Black grouse leks above the treelineSlovenia · Lek · peak 15 Apr–10 MayBubbling 'rookooing' and explosive hissing from several cocks at once on a snow-patched clearing, ring ouzel and water pipit around them; capercaillie 'cork-pop' song from the forest edge in the same weeks.
• Alpine black grouse leksItaly · Lek · peak 25 Apr–31 MayBubbling leks on snowy slopes at the treeline, with ring ouzels, alpine accentors, and snowmelt streams.
• Houbara bustard display on the Canary steppesSpain · Lek · peak 1 Jan–28 FebSilent theatre: a male running in circles with neck plumes thrown over his head like a white ball, visible for a kilometre at dawn. The soundscape is the trade wind, lesser short-toed larks, stone-curlews and coursers at first light — the plains are otherwise among the quietest places in Spain.
• Great bustard & little bustard displaySpain · Lek · peak 20 Mar–30 AprGreat bustards are almost silent in display (a low grunt and the rustle of the 'foam bath' plumage), but little bustards give their dry 'prrrt' snort and wing-whistle jump, sandgrouse call in flight and calandra larks sing continuously overhead.
• Castro Verde steppe: great bustard display and the calandra lark dawnPortugal · Lek · peak 20 Mar–30 AprA wall of calandra lark song over the cereal steppe at dawn, the dry 'prrrt' snort of little bustards, lesser kestrel colonies chattering on the farm buildings and, with luck, the low booming grunt of a displaying great bustard — mostly this is a sight: white 'foam-bath' males on the ridge lines.

More: every animal and kind · what is on in October