At 3:45 AM on April 14th, a quiet, amiable group gathered on this cold dark morning outside their Hay’s, Kansas hotel. Why at this crazy hour? Because Lesser Prairie-Chickens start their spectacular mating dance at their lek at dawn. We were about to depart to witness this event. A neon Sleep Inn sign reminded us of what we were sacrificing to watch prairie chickens instead. To the person, we were fine with this choice. That is why 150+ of us came from across the U.S. to participate in the Kansas Lek Treks birding festival.
Armed with binoculars and long-lens cameras, and bundled-up in winter clothes to stay warm in our blinds, this group was ready to experience an increasingly rare phenomenon: Greater and Lesser Prairie-Chickens dancing at their leks. They are so rare that Woodward, Oklahoma had to cancel its festival: “We regret to report that as of 2021 we have cancelled the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Festival. This is because there are not enough of the birds to ensure we can get them for our participants. However, Kansas still has a good population of Lesser Prairie-Chickens, and they have begun a festival we encourage you to attend instead.”
At 4 AM, we filed into our respective vans and rode for an hour in darkness to several lek sites in western Kansas. Enroute to the lek site, our driver and guide, Rachel, spoke eloquently about Prairie Chicken biology and their habitat management issues. A recent Wildlife Biology graduate of Kansas State University, Rachel has found her niche as interpreter, educator and ecotour guide. She is articulate, well-informed, and respectful of the ranchers and farmers who manage most of the lands in western Kansas. More than 90% of Kansas is privately-owned.
As Kansas Audubon explains on its website: “The presence of prairie-chickens indicates healthy prairie landscapes. Their mating rituals are at the same time entertaining and uplifting. Every spring, generally from mid-March through mid-May, males gather in slightly elevated areas with sparse vegetation. They vigorously defend territories that seem hardly worth defending – each territory’s valuable resource is neither food nor nesting sites, but the males themselves.”
We were headed to a private ranch with an active Lesser Prairie Chicken lek to witness this spectacle. Kansas Audubon received permission from this rancher and compensated him for allowing us to visit. Following our amazing three-hour lek experience, we signed a thank you card to express our gratitude to the rancher. This kind of collaboration is not only key to the survival of the Prairie Chickens, but also an enlightened approach toward conservation.
At 5 AM, Rachel pulled over on the side of a remote gravel road. We filed out onto the dark prairie in pitch darkness, save for the brilliant star-studded sky including the best look in recent memory at the Milky Way. It was totally silent, except for the raspy, resonant call of a Ring-necked Pheasant.
Using our headlamps, we assisted Rachel in setting up three small tents that served as blinds. We introduced ourselves to our two tent/blind mates, zipped our tent closed and sat down on camp chairs facing the lek.
The stars shone brightly. Bird songs and calls soon penetrated the silence. First the harsh Ring-tailed Pheasant calls, then the melodic, warbling song of the Western Meadowlark, and finally, the tinkling tones of the Horned Lark. At 6:15 AM, these calls and songs were drowned out by the weird booms, bubbling sounds, cackles, and shrieks of prairie chickens. Some even resembled mocking laughter: a descending HA, HA ha ha ha ha…perhaps a form of Prairie Chicken trash talk. One particularly eerie sound came from behind our tent: the deep, resonant booming sound of a male Greater Prairie-Chicken. David Sibley, reknowned author/artist of the Sibley Bird Guides describes it well: “…a low hooting moan like air blown across a bottle.”
At daybreak, shadowy forms appeared just outside our tent openings. The forms moved quickly, sometimes leaping into the air, making short aggressive flights. Soon, at least a dozen birds were in sight only 10-20 yards distant. As daylight intensified, so did the activity level at the lek. It became a wild, rowdy, colorful scene with 18 feathered participants, augmented by loud vocalizations.
Two males came close enough in the improving daylight to display their bright yellow raised eyebrows, or combs, and their inflated plum-colored air sacs. Their white tails and rabbit like plumes erect, and feet stomping at a rapid, sewing machine pace, they motored around smoothly like the flashy, sex machines that they are, hoping to find a willing female companion. We humans with our flashy clothes, dance moves and live or recorded music blaring, are not so different when we dance on bar room dance floors. One tavern in Seattle was appropriately named “The Lek.”
The impressive, choreographed dance often led to clashes, leaping, flying, biting, and clawing. Blood was drawn. The dance sorts out eligible males, leading to pairing and copulation, which occurred at least once this morning – for about two seconds – until a competing male intervened, flying in, and knocking the first male off the female.
Meanwhile the females appeared to be blasé about the frenzied activity of the males, although they positioned themselves in the center of the lek and often had their yellow eyebrows/combs raised. When interested, they laid down with wings arched downward in a receptive pose, which elicited the one copulation we witnessed. On another occasion, a female attacked a male who did not respond appropriately to her overture.
A lone Greater Prairie-Chicken staked out one side, towering above the smaller Lesser with his orange eye combs, large orange air sac, and loud, sonorous vocals. He attempted to proposition a Lesser female who seemed receptive. Hybridization does occur, and may have this morning. According to Cornell Lab of Ornithology “Few performances in the bird world are more memorable than the dawn display of Greater Prairie-Chickens at their booming ground, or lek—the traditional spot where males dance, call, and try to impress females with their vigor.”
After several hours of energetic, showy, combative dance displays, the Prairie Chickens dispersed into the tall grass behind the trampled lek. The few who remained paired up with other males, laying down face-to-face to engage in stare downs. Raising eyebrows was an understatement for these male grouse. They reminded me of Groucho Marks with yellow-orange eyebrows, literally sizing up their competition. Their heads bobbed and tilted, often leading to sudden leaps and aerial combat before resuming their stare-downs on the ground.
By 9 AM, peace was restored to the prairie. The exhausted Prairie Chickens retreated to deeper grasses, some nursing war wounds. We were spellbound during the entire dance concert, alternately staring in disbelief, watching with binoculars, and snapping photos. Although talking was forbidden in the blinds, we did a fair amount of whispering, poking, and pointing. It was hard curbing our enthusiasm.
Only 28,000 Lesser Prairie-Chickens still exist. Their northern population in Kansas and Oklahoma is considered threatened; their southern population in Texas and New Mexico is endangered. Collectively, their populations and habitats have been decimated by hunting, grazing, habitat conversion to agriculture, energy, and other forms of development. While Greater Prairie Chickens face similar threats, they are not as rare; their estimated population is 360,000 in the U.S. Great Plains and Canada. To put these numbers into perspective, millions of Prairie Chickens once populated North America.
Audubon, The Nature Conservancy, the US Bureau of Land Management, The US Forest Service, state and federal wildlife agencies and many other nonprofits are among the partners working to save these species and their mixed grassland habitat. Larkin Perry, a U. of Nebraska professor, said at the festival’s banquet that any solution must respect and engage the farmers, ranchers, and other private landowners in Prairie Chicken habitat. It must address, he said, their legitimate needs to make a living, then provide incentives for them “to do the right thing” by allowing Prairie Chickens to coexist on their lands. Unfortunately, the politics surrounding this issue in Kansas are contentious. Several high-ranking state officials oppose listing and conservation efforts. On the other hand, Audubon of Kansas has developed a science-based position regarding Lesser Prairie Chicken listing: https://www.audubonofkansas.org/document-center.cfm?fx=6HCUZQ15TR3TXTYS
Restoring cropland to grassland under the successful Conservation Reserve Program has benefited some populations of Lesser Prairie-Chickens. So have Grazing practices, such as patch-burn patch-graze, which results in diverse habitat with different grass heights. Prairie-chickens require short grass for displaying, taller grass for nesting, and grass of intermediate height for raising chicks. For further information on Prairie Chicken conservation efforts visit this site: https://www.audubonofkansas.org/conserving-prairie-chickens-and-their-habitat.cfm
Traveling through Kansas, you often see signs, billboards, and marquis at restaurants proclaiming belief in God and Christianity. These birds and their prairie habitat are a part of God’s creation. As Pope Francis reminded us “Each year sees the disappearance of thousands of plant and animal species which we will never know, which our children will never see, because they have been lost for ever. The great majority become extinct for reasons related to human activity. Because of us, thousands of species will no longer give glory to God by their very existence, nor convey their message to us. We have no such right.”
Encounters with these rare birds are inspiring. As Pete Dunne wrote about the Prairie Chicken’s booming sound in his book Prairie Spring “Once it reverberated across High Plains, with leks scattered a mile apart. Today it is a privilege and a thrill to hear it at all.” I could not agree more.
Sources:
Allaboutbirds.org, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Audubon of Kansas website
Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality – On Care for our Common Home by Pope Francis
Prairie Spring – A Journey Into the Heart of a Season by Pete Dunne
Prairie Wings magazine, Audubon of Kansas
The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley
