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Rich Peet and I went to Polk County today and sat in a Prairie Chicken Blind on this Frosty Morning. We were in Polk County, South of Interstate Hwy 2 that leads to the West to Crookston; in Tilden Township, near the intersection of State Rd 32 and Polk CR 45. We videographed and made stereo recordings of 2.5 hours of lek display, with backgrounds supplied by Sandhill Cranes, displaying Marbled Godwit, winnowing Snipe, peenting Woodcock, Vesper and Grasshopper Sparrows, tinkling Horned Larks, and Western Meadowlarks. I played the video of the Chickens wild dances for my family this evening and my daughter Sarah advised me that these birds are pure "punk", the Ramones of the bird world. Their foot stomping, whoop yelling, balloon sac resonating, cluck stammering ritual of vying for the attentions of a female went unfulfilled this day, only two females were seen very early on. These Grouse put on their performance anyway, consummate professionals. Rich and I are going to wor k on replicating these noises with some type of handmade instruments, we imagine it may take 3 people to imitate 1 bird. We see it as an opportunity to give kids a chance to replicate this piece of natural history and understand it better. Rich is going to lobby the idea to the Prairie Chicken Society to see of they are interested and perhaps the Science Museum. The MOU is alive and well in Polk County. The blind next to us was occupied by John Loegering, Professor of Wildlife Ecology at U of MN - Crookston. He was taping the dances to show to students in his classes. John told us where there were some good expanses of native and restored prairie to look for Short-eared Owls. We were soon underway. The Delorme Atlas shows the area we started from as Dugdale, on page 69, section B7. We drove west on CR 45 parallel to the RR tracks towards Harald, and while videographing a dozen or more American Pipits walking along the drainage ditch just west of SR 32, we were disrupted in our recording as a train came through at high speed. GPS - N 47 degrees; 42.120'; W096 degrees; 17.856'). I watched in amazement as the area I surveyed, a 1 mile section of prairie, erupted into a swirling mass of birds, thousands. Three species comprised the flocks, American Pipits, Horned Larks, and Lapland Longspurs. They swirled in multiples flocks for as far as I could see. The undulating flight pattern of the birds giving the flocks a texture when you looked through them, you coul dno tsee where they began or ended nor discern a genreal direction of travel. These were dense flocks of birds. I estimate there were well over 5,000 birds and could be many times more than that. I tried to video i t but it was too far, the images not representative.The time was about 9:30 AM when they took flight and they seemed to disperse after 5 minutes of bobbing back and forth in the airspace above the Prairie plot, none seen landing right there. We encountered separate flocks the rest of the morning. but nothing close to that large mass of birds, the next largest flock was 200 + Lapland Longspurs that came over low enough in the high winds for us to see their facial and throat patterns clearly. The winds picked up about then to 25-40 mph gusts and the flocks propelled by that wind were difficult to record. I have seen large flocks of Pipits in California's Central Valley before, and large flocks of Longspurs and Larks in Oklahoma in the winter time, this was a greater concentration of birds than I have ever seen of these species.We saw no Short-eared owls all day, but the exercise of scrutinizing the prairie scrub gave us many great images, the roller coaster flight of Harrier s culminating in copulation (weak video, but I got it), a calling Common Snipe perched on a telephone line, Franklin's Gulls, and Tundra Swans. Godwits were scarce this day, and no other waders were found. There was no sign of Tree Swallows or Bluebirds in the area of the Prairies. Birds seen (49 species): Savannah Sparrow - many Grasshopper Sparrow - many Vesper Sparrow Song Sparrow Killdeer Northern Flicker Northern Shoveler Mallard Wood Duck Canada Goose Northern Pintail Common Snipe - many American Woodcock - predawn courtship flights Green-winged Teal Red-winged Blackbird Black-billed Magpie American Crow Turkey Vulture Ruffed Grouse - predawn drumming Greater Prairie Chicken - 25 Western Meadowlark American Robin Tundra Swan - flock of 100 Marbled Godwit - a single bird in flight display at Lek American Pipit - Thousands Horned Lark - Thousands Lapland Longspur - Thousands Ring-billed Gull Franklin's Gull - several in a mized flock near where the Pipit flocks were Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Bald Eagle Common Loon American Kestrel - everywhere, all males Northern Harrier - 8 Sand Hill Crane - 1 seen dancing briefly Common Grackle European Starling Brown-headed Cowbird Sharp-shinned hawk Brewer's Blackbird - several flocks and individuals in the Lek. Check every Blackbird. we kept finding Brewer's ny checking every Red-wing or Grackle perched. Rock Pigeon Red-tailed Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 in Stearns County House Sparrow Tree Swallow -Stearns County Eastern Bluebird - Stearns County Cooper's Hawk Eastern Phoebe Mourning Dove Mark Alt Brooklyn Center, MN Hennepin County --NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_27841_1114323140_0 Content-Type: text/html Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit <html><body> <DIV>Rich Peet and I went to Polk County today and sat in a Prairie Chicken Blind on this Frosty Morning. We were in Polk County, South of Interstate Hwy 2 that leads to the West to Crookston; in Tilden Township, near the intersection of State Rd 32 and Polk CR 45. We videographed and made stereo recordings of 2.5 hours of lek display, with backgrounds supplied by Sandhill Cranes, displaying Marbled Godwit, winnowing Snipe, peenting Woodcock, Vesper and Grasshopper Sparrows, tinkling Horned Larks, and Western Meadowlarks. I played the video of the Chickens wild dances for my family this evening and my daughter Sarah advised me that these birds are pure "punk", the Ramones of the bird world. Their foot stomping, whoop yelling, balloon sac resonating, cluck stammering ritual of vying for the attentions of a female went unfulfilled this day, only two females were seen very early on. These Grouse put on their performance anyway, consummate professional s. Rich and I are going to work on replicating these noises with some type of handmade instruments, we imagine it may take 3 people to imitate 1 bird. We see it as an opportunity to give kids a chance to replicate this piece of natural history and understand it better. Rich is going to lobby the idea to the Prairie Chicken Society to see of they are interested and perhaps the Science Museum. </DIV> <DIV>The MOU is alive and well in Polk County. The blind next to us was occupied by John Loegering, Professor of Wildlife Ecology at U of MN - Crookston. He was taping the dances to show to students in his classes. John told us where there were some good expanses of native and restored prairie to look for Short-eared Owls. We were soon underway. </DIV> <DIV>The Delorme Atlas shows the area we started from as Dugdale, on page 69, section B7. We drove west on CR 45 parallel to the RR tracks towards Harald, and while videographing a dozen or more American Pipits walking along the drainage ditch just west of SR 32, we were disrupted in our recording as a train came through at high speed. GPS - N 47 degrees; 42.120'; W096 degrees; 17.856'). I watched in amazement as the area I surveyed, a 1 mile section of prairie, erupted into a swirling mass of birds, thousands. Three species comprised the flocks, American Pipits, Horned Larks, and Lapland Longspurs. They swirled in multiples flocks for as far as I could see. The undulating flight pattern of the birds giving the flocks a texture when you looked through them, you coul dno tsee where they began or ended nor discern a genreal direction of travel. These were dense flocks of birds. I estimate there were well over 5,000 birds and could be many times more than that. I tried to video it but it was too far, the images not representative.The time was about 9:30 AM when they took flight and they seemed to disperse after 5 minutes of bobbing back and forth in the airspace above the Prairie plot, none seen landing right there. We encountered separate flocks the rest of the morning. but nothing close to that large mass of birds, the next largest flock was 200 + Lapland Longspurs that came over low enough in the high winds for us to see their facial and throat patterns clearly. The winds picked up about then to 25-40 mph gusts and the flocks propelled by that wind were difficult to record. I have seen large flocks of Pipits in California's Central Valley before, and large flocks of Longspurs and Larks in Oklahoma in the winter time, this was a greater concentration of birds than I have ever seen of these species.We saw no Short-eared owls all day, but the exercise of scrutinizing the prairie scrub gave us many great images, the roller coaster flight of Harriers culminating in copulation (weak video, but I got it), a calling Common Snipe perched on a telephone line, Franklin's Gulls, and Tundra Swans. Godwits were scarce this day, and no other waders were found. There was no sign of Tree Swallows or Bluebirds in the area of the Prairies. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Birds seen (49 species):</DIV> <DIV>Savannah Sparrow - many</DIV> <DIV>Grasshopper Sparrow - many</DIV> <DIV>Vesper Sparrow</DIV> <DIV>Song Sparrow</DIV> <DIV>Killdeer</DIV> <DIV>Northern Flicker</DIV> <DIV>Northern Shoveler</DIV> <DIV>Mallard</DIV> <DIV>Wood Duck</DIV> <DIV>Canada Goose</DIV> <DIV>Northern Pintail</DIV> <DIV>Common Snipe - many</DIV> <DIV>American Woodcock - predawn courtship flights</DIV> <DIV>Green-winged Teal</DIV> <DIV>Red-winged Blackbird</DIV> <DIV>Black-billed Magpie</DIV> <DIV>American Crow</DIV> <DIV>Turkey Vulture</DIV> <DIV>Ruffed Grouse - predawn drumming</DIV> <DIV>Greater Prairie Chicken - 25</DIV> <DIV>Western Meadowlark</DIV> <DIV>American Robin</DIV> <DIV>Tundra Swan - flock of 100</DIV> <DIV>Marbled Godwit - a single bird in flight display at Lek</DIV> <DIV>American Pipit - Thousands</DIV> <DIV>Horned Lark - Thousands</DIV> <DIV>Lapland Longspur - Thousands</DIV> <DIV>Ring-billed Gull</DIV> <DIV>Franklin's Gull - several in a mized flock near where the Pipit flocks were</DIV> <DIV>Yellow-bellied Sapsucker</DIV> <DIV>Bald Eagle</DIV> <DIV>Common Loon</DIV> <DIV>American Kestrel - everywhere, all males</DIV> <DIV>Northern Harrier - 8</DIV> <DIV>Sand Hill Crane - 1 seen dancing briefly</DIV> <DIV>Common Grackle</DIV> <DIV>European Starling</DIV> <DIV>Brown-headed Cowbird</DIV> <DIV>Sharp-shinned hawk</DIV> <DIV>Brewer's Blackbird - several flocks and individuals in the Lek. Check every Blackbird. we kept finding Brewer's ny checking every Red-wing or Grackle perched.</DIV> <DIV>Rock Pigeon</DIV> <DIV>Red-tailed Hawk</DIV> <DIV>Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 in Stearns County</DIV> <DIV>House Sparrow</DIV> <DIV>Tree Swallow -Stearns County</DIV> <DIV>Eastern Bluebird - Stearns County</DIV> <DIV>Cooper's Hawk</DIV> <DIV>Eastern Phoebe</DIV> <DIV>Mourning Dove</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mark Alt</DIV> <DIV>Brooklyn Center, MN</DIV> <DIV>Hennepin County</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV></body></html> --NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_27841_1114323140_0--
