To: Journey North
From: Lawrence High School, Lawrence, KS
Date: March 22, 1996
Observations and writing by the following participating biology and zoology students: John Fayman, Darcy DeVictor, Lysette Faucher, Travis Herrington, Joe Treanor, and Jeremy Tolbert. Teacher: K. M. Highfill
The trip began at 2:45 a.m. from Lawrence High School. The drive was an hour and a half long, and upon arrival at our destination, we viewed and photographed the comet Hyakutake. From our position, the comet was nearly directly overhead.
Our team then hiked a mile up to the wildlife blind, a wooden shelter that hides observers from the chicken's view, before dawn. The blind is located in the heart of the Konza Prairie, a 14,000 acre biological research area near Manhatten, KS. Kansas State University is in charge of all activities upon the Konza Prairie. The blind is designed for 12 people and must be reserved. It also is important to note that most of the grass ranges at the prairie had been recently burned off by a uncontrolled fire.
With our GPS unit, we determined that the latitude and longitude of the blind is N 39o 05.291' W 96o 33.125'. Within minutes of setting up, the first prairie chickens began to call and display at 05:55. The booming continued well into the morning, punctuated by several fights between rival males and one near mating. A total of eight birds were counted at any one time, and only one hen was sighted. The birds flew away from our site at 07:50 a.m..
During this period, our team made recordings with a parabolic microphone and field tape recorder, took photographs with a 35 mm camera and a 300mm lens, and used two Sony 8mm video tape recorders to document the behavior of the prairie chicken lek (sounds like "neck")--a gathering place of displaying males during the breeding season. We had tested all our equipment and learned the operations systems last week during our seminar class.
The parabolic microphone was stationed outside of the blind; and, later the recorder was used to play back the calls in order to excite the males again. We were fortunate that the wind speed was only 1-5 miles an hour and did not interfer with our recording background noise. Twice, a male prairie chicken flew up on a barbed wire fence and looking at the position of our speaker.
A prairie chicken's call is a deep bellow called "booming" that is very characteristic. There is also a long series challenge all something like "Ca, caaa, caaa...Ca, caaa, caaa... Ca,naaa,naaa". The prairie chicken's scientific name Tympanuchus cupido refers to its "desire awaking by drumming." When calling, a prairie chicken has yellow pouches around the throat that inflate when displaying towards another male or female. Also when displaying, there are two tufts of feathers in a V-form that rise up from the head.
To hear the prairie chickens "booming", CLICK HERE (117K pc.wav) .
If you would like to send us a blank VCR tape and enough postage to cover return mailing, we will attempt to send you a short copy of the prairie chicken mating displays at the Konza Prairie.
Please notify our teacher via e-mail: Khighfil@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu if you are planning to mail a blank tape. He will supply our address.
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