Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

Over a century ago up to one million prairie chickens lived in the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast prairie. Each spring males gathered to perform an elaborate courtship ritual by inflating their yellow air sacs and emitted a strange, booming sound across a sea of grasses.

Today, less than 1% of the coastal prairies remain, and the prairie chicken has come close to extinction. The Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge offers one of the last hopes for survival of this endangered bird. We did not see any when we visited but were told that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is in the process of raising chickens in certain places on the refuge to eventually release them into the wild. 

The male performs each morning and evening from February through mid-May, holding their tails erect and wings drooped, they inflate their air sacs, then drop their heads to deflate the sacs with a low sounding "whur-ru-rrr" while stomping their feet extremely fast. He jumps and charges at other males during this booming activity. It's energetic work to attract a mate.

The hen lays about a dozen eggs and if she's lucky, they'll hatch about 26 days later. Only some 30% of all nests escape predators that include opossums, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, snakes, and domestic dogs and cats. Less than half the chicks make it to adulthood. Heavy rains and early chick-rearing seasons can mean even lower nesting success.

Attwater's prairie chickens once had some six million acres of homeland. The prairies extended along the gulf coast from Corpus Christi, Texas north to the Bayou Teche area in Louisiana and inland some 75 miles. Grasses of many species waved in the winds. But, slowly the coastal prairies diminished as cities and towns sprouted up, industries grew and expanded, and farmers plowed up native grasslands for croplands or tame pasture. Suppressing prairie fires also allowed brush species to invade prairies.

In the mid-1960s, the World Wildlife Fund purchased about 3,500 acres, and in 1972 the land was transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, preserving the prairie chicken's land. Today the refuge is more than three times its original size.

The refuge supports over 250 species of birds besides the prairie chicken as well as over 50 species of mammals, most of which are nocturnal.

Ferruginous Hawk

Great Horned Owl

Sage Grouse

Roseate Spoonbill

White Ibis

Much of the prairie consists of virgin prairie, never plowed or converted to croplands. The refuge has native grasses all over.

Big Bluestem

Nicknamed Turkeyfoot, big bluestem has forked clusters of spikes that are blue-gray to bronze. A warm seasonal perennial that reaches heights up to 8 feet, it blooms from June to September. In fall, the entire plant turns shades of brown, red, and purple.

Switchgrass

Growing in big leaf clumps, or bunches, switchgrass is found in relatively wet areas. The flowering part of the plant is purplish when in flower and then tan. It grows up to 8 feet tall, with a single flower at the end of each stem. It, too, is a warm-season grass.

Water on the prairie is scarce. Horseshoe Lake was constructed prior to the refuge's establishment to collect rainwater for livestock. Today, the lake serves an important role by supplementing native prairie pothole wetlands that have been lost. 

And last but not least, we passed a heard of cows on the refuge. They were curious about us and just stood and gawked at us. This was the last part of the 5 mile drive through the refuge and the only live animals we observed.