Prairie chickens

Today my wife and I joined up with friends of ours to watch the booming of prairie chickens. This species is threatened in Wisconsin. And it is in the efforts of the DNR to increase the population and bring back this once abundent bird. My good friend works for the DNR and provided access to one of the VIP blinds that the DNR has placed on the booming grounds of the Buena Vista Reserve. I can not begin to describe how amazing this opportunity was and that I hope I have this chance again in the near future. In these first group of photos depicts how the males defend there territories and if they cross into others boundries things can get quite physical.

What this photo shows is the booming call the males make they puff out their cheeks and make a very interesting sound.

Now in these next two photos you will see we had a surprise visitor hanging around trying to make a meal out of the males but was unsuccessful and flew off.

The shots didn't turn out to well but I felt the need to share. I believe this to be an owl after viewing the photo once I uploaded it to the pc.

And now things get very interesting as a hen (female) moves in and stood where three males territories met What a tease.

Thanks for looking hope you enjoyed

Chad