Black grouse leks
Black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix). Scottish Highlands, North Pennines, North Wales, United Kingdom.
Best time: 1 Apr – 30 Apr (April). Where: RSPB Corrimony, Highlands, Langdon Beck, Upper Teesdale, World's End, Llandegla, Denbighshire (United Kingdom). Time of day: Arrive in full dark, at least an hour before sunrise.
- Partly on your own
- Free
- Binoculars essential
- Sound 4/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 1 Apr – 30 Apr. April
Active from 15 Mar to 31 May (March to May) in a typical year.
Time of day
Arrive in full dark, at least an hour before sunrise; display peaks from first light to about 2 h after sunrise, then fades by mid morning. A shorter evening lek in the hour before sunset.
- Dawn lek: 1 h before sunrise → 150 min after sunrise
- Evening lek: 1 h before sunset → sunset
What will you hear?
Bubbling 'rookooing' from displaying males, hissing 'tchu-wee' sneezes and flutter jumps; curlew and snipe often in the same soundscape.
Binoculars?
Binoculars essential. Leks are 100–300 m off, watched from a car or hide in low first light — binoculars needed, a scope is better at Langdon Beck.
Where to go
- RSPB Corrimony, Highlands — Guided lek-watching mornings from a hide in April–May (booking required). Map
- Langdon Beck, Upper Teesdale — Roadside leks — watch from the car and don't get out. Map
- World's End, Llandegla, Denbighshire — RSPB-organised viewing in spring; roadside leks otherwise. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Langdon Beck, Upper Teesdale: drive the B6277 / Cow Green road before first light, pull into a lay-by by the known lek and stay in the car — free, no booking, and the birds tolerate vehicles. World's End (Llandegla): the minor road over the moor gives roadside leks in the same way. Corrimony: the hide is only used on RSPB-booked mornings; the reserve trail is free by day. Never walk towards a lek.
Cost: Free from the car at Langdon Beck and World's End; RSPB Corrimony lek mornings are ticketed (check current prices).
Free or no-guide alternative: Roadside lek at Langdon Beck: sit in the car on the B6277 verge before dawn, engine off, windows down. Free, legal and low-disturbance.
Who runs access
- RSPB Corrimony – black grouse lek mornings (NGO) — Guided hide sessions in April–May, booking essential.
Field-recording notes
Leks are easily disturbed: arrive in full dark, use hides or the vehicle, and leave only after the birds. A rig placed near the lek before dark and retrieved late morning works; do not walk in during display. Capercaillie leks are off limits (Cairngorms 'Lek It Be' code) — they are not a target.
Sources
Similar spectacles
Capercaillie and black grouse leks in the eastern forestsCapercaillie'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.
Capercaillie and black grouse — the ones you do not visitThe 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.
Black grouse leks in the AlpsBubbling 'rookooing' and hissing from males on snow patches at the treeline, ring ouzels, water pipits, and meltwater.
Black grouse leks in the Alps and JuraBubbling '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.
Black grouse leks above the treelineBubbling '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 treelineBubbling '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.
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