Outing postponed to this date due to illness. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
“On frosty spring mornings, as the sun rises over the prairies, one may at times hear a singular, resonant, booming note, ‘boom-ah-b-o-o-m, boom-ah-b-o-o-m.’”
So did famed ornithologist Dr. Frank M. Chapman once describe the love-song of the Greater Prairie Chicken.
More often heard by early ornithologists than our contemporary birding friends, these haunting sounds can still be heard without travelling to distant points in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas or Nebraska. On Saturday, April 22, members and guests of the Loess Hills Audubon Chapter will journey to the Buckskin Hills Wildlife Management Area (WMA) southwest of Newcastle, Nebraska to hear this boom-ah-b-o-o-m, which can travel for 2-3 miles, as well as their cackling notes which travel less distance. Observers will also see the intricate mating dance of the birds as they erect the feather tufts on their necks, raise and spread their tails, droop their wings, inflate their orange air-sacs and stomp their feet, rush at and strike their rivals. Each Spring, these males cavort on a prairie hilltop to attract the much more reserved females.
After this early morning show, we will also study the reservoir at the WMA, the pine plantations and the streamside woods and thickets for newly arriving songbirds. Our native sparrows, wrens, thrushes and perhaps our first warblers and vireos may show off in both song and movement. All in all, we expect to see 60 species or more.
Join the group for this adventure on Saturday, April 22, 2023 by meeting us at the NW corner of the Singing Hills Walmart parking lot at 6:00 AM to caravan to the Prairie Chicken lek. Those wishing to meet us there can expect us to arrive in Newcastle about 7:00 AM and may join our caravan as we pass through town on NE Hwy 12.
All LHAS outings are open to the public and offer an inviting way to begin birding and meet others with similar interests.
For more information, contact Bill Huser at 712-574-3107 or billfhuser@gmail.com.