Colorful, rare and beautiful beyond description

I’ve never gotten rich being a journalist, but sometimes this job pays you in ways that money can never match.

March 30 was one of those days. I met wildlife refuge specialist John Magera at oh-dark-thirty at the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge to go and photograph some of the magnificent birds. 

This was the second year that John has escorted me on a photo tour of the refuge. When we met last year, I was pretty naïve about the birds, the prairie and the refuge. I was also very underequipped with my photographic gear. This year, thanks to a zoom lens borrowed from my friend Mack Womack, I was better equipped.

We headed out in a van across miles of dirt trails to remote parts of the refuge where John believed the birds would be. It was dawn and the sun wasn’t yet breaking through heavy clouds. Each lek (open area of low vegetation) came up dry. We saw deer, an alligator, numerous other birds but no Attwater’s prairie chickens.

After some time we finally came up on one of the birds, but it was a ways off and the lighting was terrible. A short while later we came across a young male strutting along the roadside. We snapped a few shots before he moved on.
By this time the veil of clouds parted and some good morning sunlight was engulfing the prairie in a golden glow. Traveling down the road, three of the birds entered our path. A male was lost in exuberance trying to woo two hens. We stopped and took pictures. We crept closer and took more pictures. The hens were wary of us and kept retreating. The male was oblivious to our advances.
It was fun watching him inflate his yellow-orange air sacs, raise the earlike pinnae on his head, spread his wings and tail and rapidly tap his feet on the ground. We could hear his footfalls and his birdsong was mesmerizing.
We sat there for several minutes, John and his Canon and me and my Nikon, clicking off dozens of frames as the birds put on a spectacular show. Finally, one of the hens flew off and a couple minutes later the other followed. The male stayed on their tails and our private viewing party came to an end. Little did we know that the main attraction was about to begin.
We drove to the main lek, a watering hole with lush, green grass around it, and found at least a half dozen Attwater’s prairie chickens booming – their mating dance – like their lives depended on it. Two of the birds in particular were locked in a territorial dance-off. The postured and danced and went after each other for a long time.

Parked just a few short yards from the birds, we had a field day taking pictures. The sights and sounds were surreal. I commented about the embarrassment of riches we were experiencing.
Here we were, surrounded by a significantly large portion of the few surviving wild Attwater’s prairie chickens in the world, watching them boom in a magical display of song and dance that 99 percent of the world’s population will never get to see.
The refuge is home to the largest population of the endangered bird and it only has about 100 or so. Come fall when captive bred birds are released the population will swell to around 400. Still, that goes to show how incredibly rare and endangered these birds are.
And here we were getting a private show, up close and personal, though as if God had chosen only the two of us out of the billions of humans on the planet to be witness to this rare and fine exhibition. To top it off, he bathed us in golden sunlight and wrapped us in a slight breeze that made the morning perfect.
I felt truly blessed and incredibly grateful to John for taking me out and to Mack for loaning me his camera lens.
If you wish to view this spectacular sight, come to the Attwater's Prairie Chicken Festival on April 11-12. Come early, by 7 a.m., if you want to make the most of the opportunity and have your best chance to see this once-in-a-lifetime display. You can also book a tour, but the festival will give you many other things to enjoy on your visit. The refuge is just down FM 3013, about halfway between Sealy and Eagle Lake.