Today, Claire, Mikenzie and I decided to rough it with the researchers before dawn. Waking up at 4:30 a.m., we had a quick breakfast, then split up into two groups. Mikenzie went with Andy and Stephen, and Claire and I went with Bri. We arrived on sight (at a lek) at 5:45 and sat until 6:15. Almost exactly at 6:15 we began hearing the distinctive clucks of what we later discovered to be six male lesser prairie chickens approaching. They paired up into twos and by around 6:45 were fighting in their respective pairs. Bri informed us that some males were probably not in all out "lek mode," so the fights weren't as frequent as normal. However, this was the loudest she had ever heard them clucking.
We waited until 7 and headed out to check two other leks, careful not to disturb the lek we were currently at. Bri said that if we disturbed them too many times, the males would find another lek. We thought we were successful until the SUV started rolling. To our dismay, all six birds took off, flying northeast. Luckily, they didn't fly ver far, so Bri said that there was a chance they would return to the lek after we left.
No birds were at the two sites we checked, so we went to see if we could see or hear some chickens from the fence preventing us from entering some private property on another section of Lewis Ranch (the property we had been surveying). We parked away from the entrance and walked to the gate. I noticed some coyote tracks walking up. We could hear what seemed to be a good number of chickens, but we could not see them and were not allowed to enter the gate.
We had extra time before we got back for the day's chores, so we checked out an abandoned house where Bri had recently seen a porcupine and prairie dogs. She also mentioned the possibility of seeing burrowing owls, so we had many things to look for.
Claire and I began wandering around the stead, looking for the porcupine. Claire also set out to find a license plate. After wandering for approximately 40 minutes, we found Claire's license plate, a pair of whitewashed jeans, a washer, a "shinery mower" (a name we gave a lawn mower surrounded by no grass), an oil drum filled with pellets (Tish later told us this probably housed a species of owls), and other knick-knacks.
Around 8:45, we headed to the prairie dog town, about 100 feet away. After looking for about 10 minutes, we had found two prairie dogs, a camouflaged rabbit, and a burrowing owl! I got some good snapshots of the animals with my iPhone, using the binoculars as a magnifier (a very proud feat of mine), and after about 30 minutes, we began to leave, but stopped again after another owl began curiously hopping around the van. Nearby, another owl was guarding the entrance to its burrow, and Bri (the photographer) couldn't get good pictures of the owl, because it would duck every time she raised the camera to take a picture to "stay hidden" even though we could still see its bright green eyes.
Bri got us back to Milnesand around 9:40, and we packed lunches and headed out to conduct land evaluations. The technicians had four tests they used to determine the likelihood a prairie chicken could survive on a plot of land.
After evaluations, we headed to the bunkhouse to eat lunch. Following lunch, we finished tearing down the barn. I got to pet a corgi herding dog that came from the house (we called her Stumpy). This was especially awesome because of my extreme allergies to dogs, which usually prevented me from being around animals, but since I had gloves on, I was okay. Although it is cheesy I was excited to pet a dog, it was probably the highlight of my day since I was dog-deprived when I was younger.
Kayla and I found two fossilized turtles under the foundation of the house. Their heads and tails were still intact (a very rare occurrence we were told). Tish called them Western Box turtles.
Everyone was worn out, and we headed back to nap after a long, exhausting day. Meanwhile, Kassie, Danny, and Michael went to get cowboy hats and odds and ends. They returned to find that our van had a flat. After fixing the tire, people began preparing a spaghetti dinner. I awoke to the smell of Kassie's delicious burnt garlic bread. The food was great; Michael made frosted brownies.
Claire and I recorded our soon-to-be gold record, "Hey Prairie Chickens" to the tune of Plain White Tee's "Hey There Delilah." We then settled down for reflections and a game of catch phrase.
Reflecting on the day, the most important thing I learned was getting along with a bunch of sleepy, sometimes grumpy people (including myself). Working as a team means sometimes forcing yourself to do things you don't want to, keeping your mouth shut when you feel the need to comment (when you shouldn't), and listening at times when it's hard to pay attention. It's all a part of today's theme: love. Doing things for others when you don't feel up to it or aren't in the prime condition to.
We have survived another action-packed day with some of the best people in the world, and I look forward to learning new things as the week progresses.
-Nick
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