Fans of the blog will remember in my first blog post, I talked about how excited I was to see a Greater Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus). I’m happy to report that the lekking season has once again begun! Once a week since January 17th, Emma and I have been getting up early so we can get to the blinds by first light. The chickens tend to arrive on the lek just before sunrise, so we have to be ready to go beforehand.
Sometimes, the chickens arrive all at once, in a flutter of furry. They begin squawking, sparring, and strutting almost immediately. Other days, they roll in more slowly, apparating from the grass like phantoms in the night, suddenly doubling or tripling the lek size. Despite the minimal patches of tall grass on the lek, the chickens are still able to hide themselves from predators and researchers alike.
The chickens are so much fun to watch! They sound like squeaky toys when they’re sparring or chasing each other around the lek. Sometimes before a battle begins, two chickens will engage in a sort of battle of wills, just staring at each other menacingly. Sparring typically involves hopping and smacking each other with their wings. The battles can get quite intense, but generally the males work out a pecking order more peacefully through “flutter jumps” and vocalizations.
They’re just standing there….MENACINGLY. Picture by Charlie Tate, edited by author.
Most Greater Prairie Chicken leks start in March and peak around April. However, the lek on Mormon Island is home to overachievers. Since 2015, we have regularly observed males starting lek behavior in mid-January. It’s not necessarily unheard of for Greater Prairie Chickens to exhibit lekking behavior before March, but most of these leks are temporary and males don’t exhibit all of the characteristic lekking behaviors. To our knowledge, our study published by Caven et al. (2018) in the Kansas Ornithological Society Bulletin records the earliest consistent lek in the central Great Plains documented in scientific literature. Even though males start lekking earlier, they don’t end the behavior early. Instead, the chickens on Mormon Island have an extended breeding season. The earlier lekking times might be influenced by the warmer winters we’ve had in recent years, but even in 7°F weather conditions, we’ve still observed activity on the lek. Personally, I choose to believe the chickens start lekking early because they know how hard it is to get surveys done during crane season, so they wanted to make sure we could get some data off of the lek before we get busy.
When not watching the lek live or running around the Trust getting our blinds ready for Crane Season, I spend my time in the office reviewing our trail camera pictures of the lek. We are currently investigating how remote monitoring methods can best be used to study the lek. Every 15 minutes from 5:00AM-10:45AM and 3:00PM-8:45PM our trail camera on the lek snaps a picture. It is also triggered by movement in front of the camera, but this happens less often and mostly captures large mammals like white tailed deer rather than the chickens we’re targeting. The camera is active from January to June to include the entire lekking season. We place the camera at the same place every year to get comparable data over time.
Right now, I’m going through trail camera pictures from the 2021 season. This involves scrolling through a lot of pictures of nothing and counting the infrequent prairie chicken. We are also collecting data on predator interactions, so I will note if I see any coyotes or raptors in the pictures. It may seem easy, but, as I mentioned before, the chickens are very good at camouflaging themselves. Take a look at the picture below. How many chickens are in the photo? Click to the second photo to see the answer.
Did you count 4 chickens? The chickens blend in really well with the grass and clumps of dead vegetation, especially when they’re farther away from the camera. They best way to distinguish them from each other is looking for the distinct shape of their head or tails or comparing blobs between photos. If a blob remains stationary for hours, it’s definitely not a live chicken, but if the blob disappears between photos, it is clearly mobile. Reviewing trail camera pictures can be monotonous, but it also gives me the opportunity to find some fun pictures like the one below!
Being able to see the chickens every week has been awesome! They are definitely worth getting up at 5:00AM to sit in a blind in 14°F for an hour once a week for. I’ve always wanted to see a prairie chicken lek, and the fact that I get paid to watch them is a dream come true! I’m so thankful for this chance to monitor one of the earliest leks in the region and hopefully get some answers for this strange behavior. If you want to learn more about our surveys, be sure to check out Matt’s blog from last year here or our publications! In 2018, we published our observations of early lekking behavior and in 2017 we recorded a prairie falcon depredation event on the lek. You can find this on our “Research Publications” tab on the “Our Work” page or click the links above! Also be sure to check out our social media post about the lek on our Instagram and Facebook!
Eleanor Muzzy
Saunders Conservation Fellow 2024-2025
Prior to coming to the Crane Trust, Eleanor had worked predominantly with tallgrass prairies around the Twin Cities in Minnesota. She has a strong background with collecting vegetative data and treating invasive plant species.
emuzzy@cranetrust.org
