OK, These guys are fun and worth travel for. This is an open prairie
bird and the source of much enviromental funding because all of their
land makes great farm land. They just don't like corn and beans, and
so are in trouble. The rule if you go to record these guys are to be
prepared for wind as these areas are known for very high winds. The
land is open and there is no protection.
I mentioned the low freq directional issue because to my knowledge it
has never been published, documented, explained, or even acknowledged.
These birds travel a good distance, for a non-migrating bird, to the
exact same location each year to do a mating dance (combat for the girls).
They have skin balloons on their neck that they blow up and then make
a "woo woo" with. They have feathers on their necks that they erect
to make points like ears that except for display can not even be seen.
They beat their feet on the ground. And they get very violent with
each other. The biggest lek I have been to was about 65 birds taking
up about a 100 foot circle. All the males are trying to get into the
center but that has a lot of combat they have to survive from their
rivals to get there.
A small mp3 file download.
http://home.comcast.net/~richpeet/0305.mp3
I can not make it to the Greater Prairie Chicken Leks this year
because I need to complete all the various calls from Sharp-tailed
Grouse in Lek.
>From there I will move on to trying to document what Lang E. of this
group alleged regarding Roughed Grouse having Leks. We will see if my
4 channel array can document that next month.
The Sharp-tailed Grouse are a little more informal on returning to the
exact same spot and are not quite as complex but they make up for it
by the males struting and saying "Gotta Whip-it" to the females.
I will post an example of that sometime soon.
Rich Peet
--- In "Chris Hails" <>
wrote:
>
> Hey you chaps !! - for those of us in Europe who have never even
> sniffed a prairie chicken - I hope you'll post us 30 secs of these
> fascinating noises - if nothing else just to make up for all this
> tech-speak ! ;-)
>
> Chris
>
> --- In "Martyn Stewart" <mstew@>
> wrote:
> >
> > I will certainly take notice Rich, I know of the "booming" sounds
> and
> > zooooooo.wooooo.sounds from the male plus the "Kuk" ing sounds I
> think from
> > the male too when the females are about. I'm sure with all the mics
> present
> > we will capture some great sounds..
> >
> >
> >
> > Martyn
> >
> > ****************************************
> >
> > Martyn Stewart
> >
> > Bird and Animal Sounds Digitally Recorded at:
> >
> > http://www.naturesound.org
> >
> > Redmond. Washington. USA
> >
> > N47.65543 W121.98428
> >
> > e-mail: mstew@
> >
> > Tel: 425-898-0462
> >
> > Make every Garden a wildlife Habitat!
> >
> > *****************************************
> >
> > _____
> >
> > From:
> > On Behalf Of Rich Peet
> > Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 11:12 AM
> > To:
> > Subject: [Nature Recordists] Prairie Chickens
> >
> >
> >
> > If you have the capability with the three of you please do what you
> > can to document and determine the why on how the "woo woo's" travel
> > close to the ground and the direction appears to come from any
> object
> > that is low. To my ears it is a very strange example of highly
> > directional low pitches. One mic at the top of the blind and one on
> > the ground if matched should prove it.
> >
> > I hope the "girls" show up to your lek. They make all the difference
> > in the structure of the combat.
> >
> > For those wondering about those "woo woo's", they do that as well as
> > "cluck clucks", "thump thumps", and "bam bams' all at the same time.
> > Rich
> >
> >
>
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