Birds are readily found on public lands, especially in Nebraska and South Dakota, and hunting them in their native grassland homes offers a sense of wildness that is so often missing with other species. Also, in the early season the otherwise notoriously spooky birds often hold tight, offering the opportunity to hunt them with pointing dogs.
While all this sounds great and drives flocks of hunters to the prairies each fall, the reality remains that finding greater prairie chickens in the vast native grasslands is tough. Although the sheer expanse of grass with rolling hills and vistas provides nearly endless places to hunt, birds are not evenly distributed across the landscape. As a result, a first-time chicken hunter can often waste many frustrating and fruitless hours walking in hot, dry conditions without moving anything but meadowlarks.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Like all game birds, greater prairie chickens follow seasonal patterns of habitat use and food preferences that help hunters narrow down where to find them. Moreover, greater prairie chickens have a unique social structure that drives much of their activity in the fall. Coupled with a little advance scouting, this can make them predictable and easier to find. Focusing on these social dynamics as well as habitat preferences and food needs can lead to a better early season greater prairie chicken hunt.
Locate the Leks
Greater prairie chickens’ worlds revolve around leks or booming grounds as they are often called. These are small areas, often less than an acre in size where, during the spring mating season, males display and call to attract females. While the heaviest use of leks occurs during breeding season from late February through April, the birds use these areas all year long:
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Denne historien er fra Summer 2023-utgaven av The Upland Almanac.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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THE BIG HURTS
my Uncle Pat once told me that both pain and disappointment were good:“The more of those you have experienced,” he explained, “the longer you have lived; suffer but a little, and you’re in an early grave.
Day's End
NEAR MISSES
Hunting Dog Hypoglycemia
The first time I ever saw a dog have a seizure from hunting dog hypoglycemia was 25 years ago while hunting pheasants in western Kansas.
Profile of an Artist: MATT DOYLE
Throughout Matt's life, there has always been an active passion for the great outdoors. As a young Pennsylvanian boy, his dad and grandfathers would take him out fishing and later hunting to share their deep-rooted respect and enjoyment for God's country. It became very clear that their passion for the outdoors would soon develop his passion for it as well.
DESERT CATHARSIS
Miles of sagebrush and grasslands slipped past during the 10-hour drive between Bozeman and Denver.
RED CAR WHITE DOG:
A Riff on Sporting Vehicles and Other Matters
UENATOR CAUE (HUNTER BEWARE) A FIELD GUIDE +O HUNTING LODGES
From ice bars to plywood shacks, in-room hot tubs to a kitchen staff uprising, the hunting lodge experience can be fascinating and frustrating.
Charles Helles & Sons, London
“Some enchanted evening ... you may see a stranger across a crowded” – gunroom.
ON POINT: Finding My Way with the Help of an English Setter
Becky came into my life in a rather unusual way. My friend Tom McGuane had just bought a home on Mobile Bay as a place to retreat from the cold winters of his Montana ranch.
Tail feathers - STANDARDS AND PRACTICES
\"An armed society is a polite society,\" the NRA says in one of its dicta, cribbed from Robert A. Heinlein, a 20th-century American science fiction writer.
