CROOKSTON -- It's that time of year again when birding enthusiasts flock to northwest Minnesota to view, photograph and join greater prairie chickens on their "booming grounds" as the birds perform their spring courting ritual.
"It sounds like you're listening to a chorus when you're close to them," said Ross Hier, assistant area wildlife manager for the Department of Natural Resources in Crookston. "There's really no good way to describe it; it's best to experience it in person."
Prairie chicken viewing blinds have been installed in several locations by staff from the DNR area wildlife office at Crookston and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The chickens congregate in grassland areas called "leks" where males boom, flutter upward in the air, and stomp their feet in an effort to impress the females and stimulate breeding. Busily displaying their skills, males are best known for the melancholy "woooooo-oo" sound created by releasing air from their brilliant orange neck sacks. They also emit a variety of other vocalizations, such as the very loud "whooooop" call. In concert with other males, courting sounds are very raucous and can be heard for long distances.
Opportunities to view the chickens are now a regular and welcome event, thanks in large part to grassland restoration efforts by the DNR, the FWS, The Nature Conservancy and private landowners who enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program or keep native and tame grasslands on their property.
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Prairie chickens were designated as a species of special concern in 1984, but wildlife managers now estimate the population at 6,000 to 7,000 birds, occupying a narrow range from Crookston to Fergus Falls, Minn.
The future of prairie chickens can be summed up in one word -- grass --- and lots of it.
"Prairie chickens and other wildlife can't compete for land with commodities," said Hier. "Managing for high quality grassland habitat on publicly owned property is now more critical than ever as we lose valuable grasslands to crops."
For more information on prairie chickens and viewing opportunities, visit www.prairiechicken.org .
To reserve a viewing blind this spring, call the DNR area wildlife office in Crookston at (218) 281-6063. For additional viewing opportunities at the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge near Crookston and the Nature Conservancy's Bluestem Prairie Preserve near Glyndon, go to nature.org/Minnesota.
