WE HEARD them long before we saw them. The wonderful, warm, burbling, almost purring sound carried across the moors to us clearly as soon as we wound down the window.
With the sound giving us a bearing, we scanned with binoculars for the source of the noise.
The telescope gave wonderful views, seeming to bring them almost within arms' reach.
Eight lekking male Black Grouse.
One bird was obviously top cock, if you'll pardon the phrase. He had prime position to strut his stuff in the centre of the lek, a small cleared patch in the middle of the heather and bracken, while around him the lesser birds sought to take his place.
Black Grouse on Llandegla Moor
All the males, black bodies, red eyebrows, had almost turned themselves inside out to display their startling white tails fanned out behind them.
They made little jumps into the air and mock charges at each other, vying for supremacy, all the while burbling and bubbling loudly.
The display caught our attention, but more importantly, it attracted the attention of a female who watched the males with a critical eye from the edge of the dance floor, her muted camouflage making her hard to spot.
Truly a sight to warm your heart in the bracing temperatures of 6am.
We make this annual spring pilgrimage to World's End, one of the few reliable sites left in North Wales to see the Black Grouse lek.
A cripplingly early start ensures you reach the moors at dawn, for by 9am the grouse show is over.
The best way to see the performance is from your car; walking across the moors will only disturb the birds you've come to see, perhaps for good.
(If you prefer your views on foot, the RSPB arranges guided tours in season from Llandegla to a special viewing hide.)
As we drove slowly along the single-track lane across the moor, we stopped twice, using the car as a mobile hide, to hear and see more grouse displaying.
At our third stop, we heard, and then briefly caught sight of, a Red Grouse peering out over the heather before it crouched down under the cover of the bushes.
The theme tune of a certain whisky ad kept running through my mind as we decided it was time to toast our successful birding with a cooked breakfast.
So, certainly nothing to grouse about that morning.
