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Prairie Chicken Workshop April 24-25, 2004 Prairie Wetlands Learning Center Fergus Falls, MN Bluestem Nature Conservancy

Prairie Chicken Workshop April 24-25, 2004 Prairie Wetlands Learning Center Fergus Falls, MN Bluestem Nature Conservancy Glyndon, MN Schedule Day One 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Arrive, check in, visit the trails if you wish.

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Prairie Chicken Workshop April 24-25, 2004 Prairie Wetlands Learning Center Fergus Falls, MN Bluestem Nature Conservancy

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  1. Prairie Chicken WorkshopApril 24-25, 2004Prairie Wetlands Learning CenterFergus Falls, MNBluestem Nature ConservancyGlyndon, MN

  2. Schedule Day One • 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Arrive, check in, visit the trails if you wish. • 1 – 2 p.m. Presentation: Doug Hedke, Fergus Falls DNR Supervisor and Prairie Chicken Society Member. • 2-3:30 p.m. Presentation: Teresa M. Jaskiewicz, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Prairie Wetlands Learning Center • 3:30 – 4 p.m. View the traveling Prairie Chicken Trunk, • 4-4:30 Snack Break • 4:30- 5 p.m. Prairie Chicken Viewing Blind Etiquette • 5 p.m.-7:00 Dinner at the Rothsay Café (15 miles) for some rural, west central Minnesota atmosphere and a view the world’s largest prairie chicken. • 7:00 Return from dinner with choices of following activities: *Rest and relax, chat with people. *View the Bell Live! Video (1 hour), “On the Prairie”, which was filmed at the Nature Conservancy in 1999 – the place we will be going to on Sunday. *Video on bird migration.

  3. Schedule Day Two • 3:45 a.m. Sharp!! Depart for the Nature Conservancy, on the way, you can choose to bring the light breakfast (juice, fruit, muffin) if you need energy. Use the restrooms! Go easy on the coffee! • 4:45 a.m. Must be out of vehicles walking to blinds, about ¼ mile. • 4:50 a.m. In blinds • 5:15 a.m. Optional group departure to tour prairie areas of Wilkin County • (no blinds, but see chickens from the vehicle). • 5:20-7:30 What you have all been waiting for…Prairie Chicken Booming. This is peak season, so the length is 1.5 - 2 hours. No leaving blinds when birds are present. • 7:30-8:30 a.m. Back to PWLC • 8:45-9:30 a.m. Breakfast • 10-11 a.m. Forces that Created the Prairie 1 mile interpretive hike. • 11 – 11:30 a.m. Ceremony, hand back checks and CEU certificates. • 11:30 – noon Pack up, clean up, depart.

  4. Prairie Wetlands Learning CenterFergus Falls, MN • The Prairie Wetlands Learning Center is an outdoor classroom featuring 325 acres of native and restored prairie, more than 2 dozen wetlands, and an oak savanna. A specially designed garden attracts native pollinators and provides an inviting outdoor laboratory for the study and tagging of monarch butterflies. • You can traverse through this natural haven via four miles of trails for a chance to see everything from insects, ducks, and hawks to muskrats and deer.

  5. Bluestem Prairie is an extensive remnant of "a vast sea of natural grassland" that at one time covered the entire Red River valley. It is also one of the highest quality prairie sites in the U.S. Lying within the Glacial Lake Agassiz bed, it contains two significant shorelines, the Norcross and Campbell Standlines. Uplands contain mesic tallgrass prairie, while low swales contain wet blacksoil prairie with sedge meadow and calcareous fen communities. Plant species found here include the rare sticky false asphodel, alkali and slender cordgrass, small white lady slipper, and scirpiform sedge. Rare fauna species include regal fritillary, melissa blue, prairie vole, plains pocket mouse, northern grasshopper mouse, Henslow's sparrow, upland sandpiper, marbled godwit, eastern meadowlark, loggerhead shrike, and greater prairie chicken. Blinds for viewing the prairie chickens' courtship behavior in April are available by reservation through The Nature Conservancy Bluestem Prairie office (218) 498-2679. Visit in early spring, when pasque flowers bloom and prairie chickens boom and dance, and again in late summer to see blazing stars and sunflowers in bloom. Bluestem Prairie SNA

  6. Professional DakotaPrairie Chicken Dancers

  7. Our own Prairie Chicken Dancers • Part of our day we learned of the cultural importance and symbolism of the prairie chicken to the Dakota. • We also learned the Prairie Chicken Dance.

  8. Faces of the Great Plains Our Prairie Wetlands Learning Center instructor Teresa M. Jaskiewicz U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

  9. Prairie Chicken Capital of the WorldRothsay, MN Participants ate dinner at the Rothsay Truck Stop, next to the world’s largest prairie chicken.

  10. The early bird catches the dance… • Our adventure started at 4 a.m. as we trekked out to the viewing blinds on the Bluestem Prairie. • As the morning moved along and darkness became light, the viewing blinds could be seen.

  11. We are still awake! • Time to go and start our day. • Checking out the history of the Bluestem Prairie

  12. Interpretive Prairie Hikeand inducting new members into the Loyal Order of MAGErs MAGE director, Dr. Dave Lanegran, receiving another pin for his Loyal Order of MAGErs ribbon.

  13. More photos on the prairie near Fergus Falls, MN

  14. Candid shots…. • Come on and do that prairie chicken dance Ed and Jane…. • The Trepp’s deciding on dinner at the Rothsay Café Truck Stop.

  15. Fun was had by all All you do is lift your feet…. Mary M. is hiding behind native prairie grass

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