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<br /> <br />topography along the route and surrounding terrain. Stop locations were chosen to provide the <br />most unobstructed view of surrounding terrain. At each stop, the observer would shut off and <br />exit the vehicle and then scan the surrounding area with binoculars and listen for grouse <br />vocalizations to locate grouse breeding activity. Counts of birds at each lek located were made <br />from the vehicle at an elevated position that provided good visibility of each lek. A minimum of <br />three counts of birds present (males and females were counted separately, when possible) was <br />made at each lek with counts being made alternately from left to right and right to left at <br />approximate 5-minute intervals. New lek locations were determined with the use of a hand-held <br />GPS and then plotted on DRG 7'/2 minute USGS topographic maps. If it was determined that <br />that locations of known lek sites varied from CDOW coordinates, new coordinates for the <br />approximate center of the lek were determined with the use of a hand-held GPS as well. <br />Weather conditions for the early morning grouse lek surveys were relatively good, ranging from <br />mostly cloudy skies with calm wind conditions to mostly clear skies with occasional gusting <br />winds. Surveys on April 19 followed an evening snowstorm that left 1 to 2 inches of fresh <br />snowfall. There were no precipitation events during any of the early morning surveys. Specifics <br />on weather conditions for each survey period are provided on the field data sheets in Appendix <br />A. <br />2.2 Raptor Nest Surveys <br />Raptor nest surveys in 2007 were conducted from April 16 through 19 and June 4 through June <br />6 to check known nest sites, locate new nests, and check activity status. Nest surveys were <br />completed by traveling areas of suitable habitat and scanning trees, powerline poles and <br />towers, cliffs, and areas of rock outcrop with binoculars or spotting scope to locate evidence of <br />nesting activity (whitewash, stick nests, and adults exhibiting territorial behavior). Occupied <br />nests were checked, where safety permitted, to determine production. A hand-held GPS was <br />used to determine the UTM coordinates of all nests located and the locations were then plotted <br />on DRG USGS 7'/2 minute topographic maps.