Milnesand

First, I'd like to indicate how lucky I really was for going on an outing as interesting and as fun as this. Milnesand may have been just 3 houses and a fire station/civic center combined but it was a very welcoming and happy community, even despite the inclement weather! Milnesand is actually located on a very large plateau, an interesting geographical location compared to the surrounding "Llano Estacado" - coined by Coronado's expedition for many potential reasons (plateau rocks looking like the palisade of a fort, or having to use stakes to navigate the unremarkable landscape). The emphasis of the lecture given in Milnesand was that "location is important" and I completely agree with the message. This location, upon on a plateau, has a particular environment that for many reasons is agreeable to Prairie Chickens.
For Prairie Chickens there are 5 common birds, Sharped-tailed grouse, Greater Sage Grouse, Guinnison's Sage Grouse, Greater Prairie chicken, and the Lesser Prairie chicken, (the differences between Greater and Lesser Prairie chickens derives from GPC being 2.5 lbs heavier with orange air sacks and orange eye-cones - while LPC have plum-colored air sacks and plum eye-cones). The normal range areas for these birds are Texas, Oklahoma, NM, Colorado, and Kansas; however, there has been a vast loss of their natural range, stemming from many different factors. One of these factors has to do with farmers using barbed wired to enclose areas, this barbed wire is difficult to see and Prairie Chickens are unable to avoid them when evading predators. The class as a whole banded together to stick easily identifiable markers on the barbed fence in an effort to increase the population. With a 50% yearly mortality rate, a 3 year old chicken being considered "old", Prairie Chickens have plenty of environmental forces, such as the Cooper Hawk, working against them for humanity to be adding anything else. Despite all the dangers of living on the plateau, Prairie Chickens do, particularly because of the flora that abides there. One such plant is the Shinnery Oak, a low tree of about shin height with acorn-seeds, which are used by Prairie Chickens for both cover and food. Another is Blue-stemmed grass in which the PC use to nest and raise their young in. Cover is also important for their courtship and mating, Prairie Chickens like a semi-clear area of low grass with and outside rim of much taller grasses or brush. This is where Prairie Chickens form a lek, or a place where males congregate to demonstrate for females.
After researching leks online, I came across an interesting piece of information regarding them, there is a paradox associated with leks.

Persistent female choice for particular male trait values should erode genetic variance in male traits and thereby remove the benefits of choice, yet choice persists. This is most obvious in lekking species where females gain no material benefits or parental care from males. This paradox can be somewhat alleviated by the occurrence of mutations introducing potential differences, as well as the possibility that traits of interest have more or less favorable recessive alleles. (Wikipedia)


The PC display of courtship were absolutely spell-binding. I would have never imagined so many different acts: stamping feet, blowing up air sacs, defending terroritorial areas, jumping, "flutter jumps", "bowing", tail feathers brushing against one another, not to mention the multitude of calls and various utterances form the birds. It was a singularly amazing experience to be able to witness that first-hand, even if other environmental conditions were not quite as amazing.
A bonus to going to Milnesand was being able to see a Golden Eagle and a professionally trained sheep/cattle dog. The Golden Eagle was absolutely breath taking and after comparing it to the Golden Eagle seen in the museum, no matter how incredible the skin was at maintaining the Golden Eagle's beauty, it was no match to seeing the creature animated. The sheep/cattle dog made me re-evaluate my stance of "cats are better than dogs", even if it was only for a moment.