Prairie Chicken Blog

Prairie Chicken Lunch and Learn

Blank Park Zoo — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:35:44 -0600

Final Week

Blank Park Zoo — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:20:05 -0600

8 August 2011 - 12 August 2011

It was a gorgeous week. The sun was shining with highs in the 80's and low humidity. A great week to be outside.

The week started off with a presentation and meeting of the data collected throughout the spring and summer. The rest of the week was spent finishing reports, organizing data and packing up the office.

On Friday, I turned in my keys and left the office for the last time. It was a great summer full of great experiences and I had a wonderful summer in southern Iowa.

Week 19 & 20

Blank Park Zoo — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:14:09 -0600

25 July 2011 - 5 Aug 2011

It was a hot two weeks. There was a lot of sunshine and plenty of heat especially in the end of July. Rain did fall this last week. It was a much needed shower as grasses were turning brown and trees were starting to dry up.

July ended on a pretty slow note. I didn’t get out of the office for much more than a couple minutes a day and that was just to stretch. Every day was spent writing my final report and preparing for the end of my term.

August started out fast. I got back into the field for the first time in over a week. On Monday zoo staff, americore workers, Iowa DNR employees and Iowa State researchers all took time off to help volunteer to search for prairie chicken broods. In all 20 people showed up to help with the search on what turned out to be a very hot day. There were 5 chickens found in all that day, which was a surprisingly high number for the amount of ground that we covered.

I also conducted another brood survey later in the week. This survey took place at sunrise on a dewy morning. I drove the roads around the leks and areas that I think would provide good brood cover in hopes of finding prairie chickens trying to dry their feathers.

During the brood surveys we saw lots of birds. Pheasant with chicks, bobwhite quail, eastern kingbirds, dicksiscels, a variety of sparrows, upland sandpipers, northern harriers, killdeer and of course some prairie chickens.

Thanks to everyone that came out and helped with the brood survey. You all helped a bunch to gather some really good data. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Week 18

Blank Park Zoo — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:43:14 -0600

18 July 2011 – 22 July 2011

HOT, that is really the only word to describe this week. There was a heat advisory everyday with heat indexes reaching the 120’s. It was a good week to go to a lake and go for a swim, just about everything else was miserable.

In the mornings I would go out and help the DNR trap and band Mourning Doves. It’s not quite as exciting as the goose banding, but it was a nice change of pace. While we were banding doves, we would go and spay some more sericea lespadiza between checking the traps. It was so hot that we had to cut the trapping short everyday to keep from harming the birds. The DNR started to run the traps at sunrise and just before sunset to help avoid the heat. In all we caught mostly Red-Winged Blackbird and Brown-Headed Cowbirds but we did manage to catch a few doves as well.

After the mornings were through I would come back and work on my final reports. That is a slow process, but it is important to do it well.

There are still more flowers blooming, the prairie is looking good with all the flowers in bloom. Not as many birds flying around with the heat like it was. I did hear a whip-poor-will off in the distance while banding doves in the evening.

Week 17

Blank Park Zoo — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:42:03 -0600

11 July 2011 – 15 July 2011

It was a warm one this week, with a lot of sun and little wind. It started out very nice, but gradually got warmer as the week went on. The forecast for next week is looking like it will only continue to get warmer.

It was an up and down week for me. Monday was not a good day. There was rain and some small thunderstorms in the morning. While continuing my data entry we lost power in the office. Though the power outage was short, it caused my computer program to go on the fritz. I lost all of the data that I had entered that day and I also lost the data that I had entered the previous week. Tuesday, I went into the field to help the DNR spray Sericea Lespediza, which is an invasive plant species. That was a nice day and very productive. Wednesday was spent helping the DNR again, this time I brought my camera with to document the process. Unfortunately, the vehicle that I was in happens to have the engine right beneath the passenger seat. With the seat broken, my camera fell onto the hot engine and actually got so hot that I couldn’t touch it. Needless to say it melted a little. Fortunately, only the outside melted and the inside remained intact so in the end the only thing that was lost was a fried battery. By week’s end things were better; my camera was working and I finished all of my data entry.

I saw a bunch of wildlife going out and spraying invasive plants. There was a large assortment of birds and insects; I even saw a moth that I had never seen in my life, too bad it was when my camera was out of commission. I saw some American toads, rabbits, sunflowers, quite a few juvenile American Robins, bobolinks, phoebes and Eastern Kingbirds.

Week 16

Blank Park Zoo — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:18:51 -0600

27 June 2011 – 1 July 2011

It was another hot week. While the temperatures were only in the upper 80’s and low 90’s, the humidity and lack of wind certainly made it feel warmer. On Thursday the heat index was around 110 causing me to drink water like a fish and dream of air conditioning.

While it was a hot week it was also productive. I nearly finished my surveys, leaving only about one day worth of field work for next week. Then I will be able to sit down, enter the data and begin actually assessing the habitat that is out there.

There were still quite a few animals roaming about. I saw all the staple animals, such as Bobolinks, meadowlarks, and a variety of sparrows. I did also manage tosee some other birds and animals such as Indigo Buntings, Red-Headed Woodpeckers, bullfrogs, a couple different caterpillars, a whole bunch of dragonflies and damselflies and I even managed to flush out another skunk.

Week 15

Blank Park Zoo — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:07:22 -0600

20 June 2011 – 24 June 2011

This was a cloudy and gloomy week. There were scattered rain showers throughout the week and very little sun. Once you get past the weather, it turned out to be a fantastic week.

Early in the week I helped the DNR band geese. That was a lot of fun and something that I had never done before. We drove around a few predetermined lakes/ponds (ones that were known for having 20+ geese on them). Once the geese were located, a couple people would flush geese off of the beach and into the water. After the geese were swimming, three small boats would corral them to keep the geese from splitting up. Then the boats would herd the birds to a funnel trap. To keep the geese from the going ashore before they reached the trap, one person would walk the shore line making sure the geese stayed in the water. When the geese were finally pushed to the trap, the person on shore would back off and the boats would herd the geese into the funnel trap. Once the geese were in the corral it was like an old fashion cattle branding (instead of a brand we gave the geese a USFWS band). With a couple people in the pen catching the geese by hand then passing them to the people outside the pen so that the goose could be aged, sexed and then banded. After a goose had received a band it was released unharmed.

When it was all said and done over 100 geese had new bands. These bands are important for the DNR to understand migration patterns, population trends and helps determine bag limits.

When I wasn’t banding I was back in the field collecting more habitat data for the Prairie Chickens (using the new protocol). With it being such a cool week, there were a ton of animals that were active during the day. I saw a short eared owl, some bobolinks, eastern kingbirds, dickcissels, jumping mice and some voles. With the fields filled with flowers, the bees and wasps were abundant.

Week 14

Blank Park Zoo — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:05:00 -0600

13 June 2011 – 17 June 2011

It was a nice week, one of the nicest this year. Temperatures were in the 70’s with light breezes. There were a few scattered showers, but nothing significant.

Most of the week was spent doing more research on prairie chickens. The rest of the time was spent making maps and finishing up the protocol for the second survey. By week’s end the protocol was finished and maps printed so that next week I can get back into the field and start collecting more data.

Week 13

Blank Park Zoo — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:41:57 -0600

6 June 2011 – 10 June 2011

It was an extremely hot start to the week. I was starting work as early as I could (ie sunrise) in order to finish my work before the heat of the day arrived. The bugs also started coming out in force causing my face and neck to become a food supply for the swarms of biting flies and mosquitoes. My only saving grace was the wind, giving me a breeze to take away some of the heat and forcing the bugs to lay low. After a few rain showers and thunderstorms midweek, it started to cool down.

Unfortunately, two weeks into the second survey, my supervisors and I decided that the data we were gathering wasn’t giving us the information that we need. So we halted the data collection and started to brainstorm some new ideas about what data needs to be collected and how to go about collecting it. After a couple days of thinking a new protocol has been written and hopefully a return to the field will follow early next week.

I heard a rustling of grass and shrubs in the early Monday morning dew and being a curious person, started to investigate. To my shock and horror I kicked out skunk. Fortunately, I managed to escape without being sprayed. On Wednesday I heard a bunch of squeaking at my feet. After a couple of seconds of searching I found a nest of baby mice. Once I uncovered the nest, the poor little guys tried to scurry blindly away from the unknown danger.

Week 12

Blank Park Zoo — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:30:43 -0600

30 May 2011 – 3 June 2011

It was a hot and humid week, but it went by fast. The grasses have started to pollinate, which is causing my allergies to misbehave, as yellow puffs of pollen fill the air as I walk. I found two more fawns this week hiding in the grass and a whole bunch of bird nests. There seems to be more variety of butterflies and moths every day and a lot of flowers are in full bloom.