Tall Grass Prairie Preserve

 

After she graduated college at OSU, my daughter Kristi got a job working on a team studying the Greater Prairie Chicken at the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve north of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. One Saturday morning, I got up at 4 AM and met her at her office near the entrance of the Preserve. This story documents my recollection of that day.

 

 

 

Tall Grass Prairie Preserve

 

We got into a pick up truck they used for the team study and we headed into the Preserve. We drove for about twenty minutes and stopped at one of their study locations on top of a hill.

 

 

Entry in to the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve with a big welcome sign for visitors.

 

 

 It was still dark outside so we sat in the cab of the pick up and talked for a while. She was really into the study so she brought me up to speed. As soon as it started getting light outside, several Greater Prairie Chickens showed up about 50 feet from where we were parked and the males started doing their mating rituals. The sounds and actions of the birds was awesome to watch. After about an hour, they had all disappeared over the hill.

 

 

The male Greater Prairie Chickens trying to impress the female with their special mating ritual on the hill. 

 

 

 

Kristi finished documenting her notes and we headed for the east boundary to the preserve. Along the way we saw a large group of Bison feeding on the tall grass.  She drove up very near them and we observed them for a while.

The Bison really seemed contented feeding on the tall grass in the Preserve.

 

 

She told me, they had tagged five or six Prairie Chickens with radio transmitters so the birds movement could be tracked for the study. We would drive as close as we could get on the roads, and stop and get out, if she could detect a signal, we would walk until we got the signal strength to a certain level and check our location with a GPS and record it as the Chickens location. After we found three chickens, it was lunch time, so we stopped under one of the few trees on the Preserve and had the lunch she had prepared for us.

 

 

 

After lunch, we continued chasing radio signals. We were out walking after one Prairie Chicken when I heard a rattle that startled me. I looked down and saw a Massasagua Rattlesnake about 2 feet from my leg in the grass so I jumped sideways about 6 feet and made tracks out of there. We finally found and documented the location of two more Chickens and called it a day.

 

I was thankful I didn’t step directly on top of the rattlesnake lying hidden in the grass.

 

 

I really enjoyed being out there with my daughter on her job. I had always told my daughters to find a job they love doing and they would be happier. I could tell she loved her work.

 

 

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Thanks for reading Tall Grass Prairie Preserve,
Bill