Hello, all.

In case any of you were wondering what to do during the doldrums of
March, here's a message from a friend of mine about a rare species
and a place to see it.

Greater Prairie Chickens

Hi all,

I just had the greatest experience, and had to share it with you-all.
Over my spring break [mid-March 2004] I drove to northern
Oklahoma/southern Kansas to see the rare Greater Prairie Chicken.
They are difficult to see, to say the least, at The Nature
Conservancy's Tall Grass Prairie Preserve northwest of Pawhuska, OK,
because you are allowed to drive only on the dusty, crunchy gravel,
trafficy county roads. If you walk away from the road you have to
watch out for the numerous unpredictable and dangerous Bison. Seeing
many herds of Bison, some very close ? the preserve has 1800 Bison
now ? was however quite neat. I did see one chicken in flight here,
but better were several Rough-legged Hawks hunting the area.
Harriers, including many males, and Red-tails were common. After
phoning nearly all the places I could glean from the literature, I
concluded that there is no good place to see Greater Prairie Chickens
in Oklahoma. I did not check out a site at Sooner Lake north of
Stillwater, however.

I phoned a friend in Kansas who told me about a farm run
as a Bed & Breakfast that IS a wonderful place to see Greater Prairie
Chickens. The farm is on the southeast edge of Dexter, KS, at 26798
212th Road, which is not far north of the OK line and southeast of
Wichita. They put you up in a comfortable room, provide muffins and
coffee before dawn, take you out to a blind at a lek (male display
ground), let you view the chickens at your leisure, then feed you a
big farm breakfast after they pick you up. The chickens come to the
leks best at dawn, but sometimes also late in the afternoon, when I
saw them feeding or displaying in the distance on two different leks
from the farm buildings. The experience is well worth the current
charge of $50 per couple. Your hosts are good people, Bob and
Margaret Massey. I think they do not have e-mail, but their phone is
620-876-5700.

Greater Prairie Chickens are larger and more brightly marked than I
thought they were, as I saw them dancing on the green on the morning
of Saint Patrick?s Day. I also saw the rare sight, according to the
Masseys, of 5 Prairie Chickens perched in a bare tree. The big,
slow-flying chickens on the bare sites of the leks look like perfect
Red-tailed Hawk food, and according to Bob, they ARE often hawk food.
These are rare birds, because nearly all the ranchers burn the grass
in early spring, leaving the chickens without any cover. If it is a
dry year, the chickens will have no cover on those burned lands all
year ? a criminal treatment of the land for more profit. The Massey
farm has to be one of the best places in the world to see Greater
Prairie Chickens, and a trip there could be done in a weekend from
the Dallas area. Enjoy!

Sid Dunkle, sdunkle at ccccd.edu

--
Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
1500 N. Warner, #1088
Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html
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