A prairie chicken lek

If you have ever been lucky enough to witness a prairie chicken lek, you will never forget it.To me, it feels like a Friday night pub back in the UK.All the lads are already there.Standing around.Waiting.They puff themselves up, stamp their feet, and boom out these extraordinary sounds, doing everything they can to impress.Pure confidence.Pure theatre.Then the females arrive, and suddenly it all matters.Each male is saying the same thing.Pick me.I have spent hours lying in the prairie, completely transfixed, recording this ancient ritual.Watching the light rise.Listening as the land comes alive with sound.This is not noise.This is communication.This is survival.Close your eyes and imagine those deep gobbles and low booms rolling across the open grasslands.This is the voice of the prairie.This is the story of the Greater Prairie-Chicken.www.thelisteningplanet.com