On 9 April 2011 Amy and Noah Kearns, Douglas Gray, Sally Routh, Cassie Hall and friend, James Mathews, Karen Wade and friend, Gene and Jaclyn Shroeder, and Mary Fox went to the Prairie Ridge Stata Natural Area near Newton, Illinois to view Greater Prairie-Chickens on their booming grounds. Entering the blinds before sunup, the group saw a few “chickens” before mother nature cut loose with severe lightening and rain. Amy Kearns related her and Noah’s experience that morning.

“The major highlight was of course 9 Greater Prairie-Chickens – 4 males booming in the lek in front of the blinds with distant lightning as a big thunderstorm rolled in. These birds were lifers for everyone in the group, and the lightning during sunrise made for quite a dramatic setting! I will certainly never forget it. We left the blinds early because of the storm. Noah and I headed to Newton for breakfast to wait out the weather, and at 10:30 a.m. traveled back to Prairie Ridge. After the morning storm passed it turned into a beautiful day, with sunshine and warm weather. From various locations on the property, Prairie-Chickens could be heard booming all afternoon. We figured we’d heard at least five additional birds. After the chickens, our second target bird for the day was Upland Sandpiper, which we missed, but not for lack of trying. We made up for it with 4 pairs of LOGGERHEAD SHRIKES – yes, 8 birds total!! It was wonderful to see the shrikes doing well somewhere in the Midwest. These 4 pairs were all in a 4-5 square mile area and were actively foraging and courting. Pretty amazing and a real treat! Other highlights were a first summer Trumpeter Swan, an adult Peregrine Falcon flying low over a field that held at least 3 Smith’s Longspurs, a Sora whinnying while we were in the blinds, 68 American Golden-Plovers, 7 American Pipits and at least 16 singing Henslow’s Sparrows. We had 58 species for the day.”

Alan W. Bruner
Chair, IAS Field Trip Committee