Lesser prairie chicken

J

Jpace

Member
With the fish and wildlife declassification of the lesser chicken from endangered. Was wondering if you guys that hunt SW Do you ever see very many? I hunt a lot on the eastern edge of there range and limited in the heart of their range. And I have never seen a single one.
 
There is a flock of chickens that I’ve seen 2 or 3 times kind of wondered if they were lessers but I wouldn’t know the difference. The places are no longer in walk-in so I’ll never know unless they turn up somewhere else.
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
There is a flock of chickens that I’ve seen 2 or 3 times kind of wondered if they were lessers but I wouldn’t know the difference. The places are no longer in walk-in so I’ll never know unless they turn up somewhere else.
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There is a flock of chickens, maybe 150 or so, where I hunt but not for sure if they are Lessers.
 
Saw some in Mitchell County in January. Maybe 40-50. I'm assuming Lessers. Was cool to see. Pretty nice flock. I've not seen too many in my lifetime.
 
Mitchell county would definitely be greater PC.

I saw one on opening weekend of pheasant season maybe 15-20 years ago in Gray county. It flushed right in front of me, in range, when there was still an open season in KS. My brain said "hen," so I didn't shoot. Even if I had properly ID'd it, I doubt I would have shot.

A landowner further east and a bit north of there said he had a small flock, and I may have seen one once. It was one of our few snow days in Kansas, and a plum thicket on a pivot corner very close to that landowner was holding pheasants, quail and one bird that very much looked like a PC. I didn't get a good enough look to confirm whether it was a lesser, but it definitely didn't look like a pheasant or quail. This was only maybe 2 years ago.
 
I have lessers here, not many and don't seen them often. They live in pasture away from our pheasant hunting area, but once in a while there will be a flush when pheasant hunting usually just a single or maybe up to four. Only killed two here in my lifetime when there was a season. Picked one up that clipped a barbed wire fence and gave it to the game warden.
 
M. R. Byrd said:
I have lessers here, not many and don't seen them often. They live in pasture away from our pheasant hunting area, but once in a while there will be a flush when pheasant hunting usually just a single or maybe up to four. Only killed two here in my lifetime when there was a season. Picked one up that clipped a barbed wire fence and gave it to the game warden.
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Was there a day when they were strong in population on your place or county, the stories of pass shooting flocks is something I wish I could have witnessed.. grandpa told me stories of that, almost got the impression they were a nuisance when chasing pheasants.
 
Quailnerd said:
Was there a day when they were strong in population on your place or county, the stories of pass shooting flocks is something I wish I could have witnessed.. grandpa told me stories of that, almost got the impression they were a nuisance when chasing pheasants.
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I am not aware of the pass shooting around here in the last hundred years. I have heard of shooting greaters that way in counties in the Flint Hills(Elk, Chase, Lyons) flying to and from feeding fields. Back in the early/mid 90's was the best populations here and there was a flock of about 25 that would fly from one pasture to another but we could never get in their path to get a passing shot. We tried hunting them in the canyons, but that proved unsuccessful as they would generally flush out of range, then fly in a tight formation about 5 foot off the bottom of the canyon and be around the corner in a blink of the eye. They looked like a squadron of jet fighters in a tight formation zigging and sagging right down the canyon. It was always an amazing encounter even though unsuccessful.
 
M. R. Byrd said:
I am not aware of the pass shooting around here in the last hundred years. I have heard of shooting greaters that way in counties in the Flint Hills(Elk, Chase, Lyons) flying to and from feeding fields. Back in the early/mid 90's was the best populations here and there was a flock of about 25 that would fly from one pasture to another but we could never get in their path to get a passing shot. We tried hunting them in the canyons, but that proved unsuccessful as they would generally flush out of range, then fly in a tight formation about 5 foot off the bottom of the canyon and be around the corner in a blink of the eye. They looked like a squadron of jet fighters in a tight formation zigging and sagging right down the canyon. It was always an amazing encounter even though unsuccessful.
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Believe it or not pass shooting chickens was a big thing in the early seventies when I was a kid. My dad, uncle and I would go down for the opening day every year around Westphalia in Southeast Kansas. It was a big deal from what I remember. Hunters would line the roosts on the road with the hopes they were in the right spot. My uncle had contacts in the area that would tell us where to stand. We would go eat lunch and do the same in the evening. Good memories as my dad passed a few days after my seventeenth birthday
 
They were as thick as black birds back in the day through the flint hills. On my trips back and forth out west pheasant hunting, I was always amazed at how many you would see as the sun was setting. Unbelievable really. We just hunted them like you would hunt dove or ducks back in the day in SEK, usually sitting beside a large hay bale. The part of SEK that I lived and hunted prairie chicken has not had them for since the late 80's. Also used to have a few ruffed grouse back in that part of SEK. Tom Glick, who was the biologists for KDWP in Crawford and Cherokee County, had released them in the strip pits. I would see them in the fall after the leaves had fallen when I was deer hunting. Always sitting in a tree. They were gone by mid to late 80's as well. Hunting everything was better back then. The 60's, 70's, and early 80's were pretty special.
 
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