ML627414769

Ажиглалтын дэлгэрэнгүй

Absolutely absurd amount of prairie-chickens. I would have gotten more photos/videos if I knew it was a high count, I had heard there were plenty of chickens while reading about the grassland so I didn't think much of it and simply was amazed. I have a photo and a video of two different flocks, one was north near the start of my track at the north dam and the other flew in from south of 226th. The first flock I saw flying from far away and I honestly thought it was a large mixed flock of HOLA/LALO flushed by a FEHA but when getting closer saw they were chickens. I got a digibin when they landed that has around 220 individuals, with many others outside of the frame. I estimate that flock has around 300. The second flock I was stopped in the car with my window open to hear whooshing, and I look up to see hundreds of prairie-chickens flying in from the south (only around 5 minutes after the first flock, which were still together where they landed originally). I scrambled and got a video of the last little bit of them, which was around a quarter or less of the flock, and upon counting there were 125 individuals in the video. I'll be conservative and put 450 individuals for the total flock. Plus the flock of 300. Outside of this checklist I had a couple more flocks of around 50 and many smaller flocks of 20, that I won't add to this count. I had a few STGR, as well, but I didn't see any in the large flocks, just all chickens.