Field Notes: On the Lek

Long before sunrise, we loaded into vehicles for the hour-long drive to the spot just west of the Kansas border in southeastern Colorado. It was unusually warm for a lek morning. The temperature was far more enjoyable than the 3 am start time. 

We could hear them before we could see them. The first calls of Lesser Prairie-Chickens came from about 50 feet in front of us.

By sunrise, the lek was alive with action, albeit less action than earlier in the mating season. The males, 12 in total seemed tired. That’s not entirely unexpected since the peak of lek action had already passed and we were just past a full moon. Males are known to even dance at their lek under moonlight.

Males tapped their feet, bowed, and cackled at each other mostly in pairs in the short grass. Several waited on the sidelines in taller grass being chased off as soon as they tried to enter the lek. 

Every lek experience is different, but this one carried an added sense of awe. It’s not easy to see Lesser Prairie-Chickens in Colorado. Once one of the most iconic species of the Southern Plains, their population has declined by more than 90% over the past few decades and they’re now on the brink of extinction. Watching this group display at sunrise, it’s impossible not to feel connected to the vital habitat that still supports them.

The work behind protecting places like these matters deeply.

A huge thank you to Southern Plains Land Trust for their continued stewardship of these prairie ecosystems and to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for their ongoing conservation efforts supporting lesser prairie-chickens in Colorado. Special thanks as well to Jonathan Reitz for helping make this experience possible.

We later asked a few of the photographers who joined us to share what stood out most from the morning.

One reflected on the generational connection between land and bird, describing the experience as “astonishing to behold.”