Sometime in the mid 50s i was walking with an Uncle on the family farm not far from Rainy River Ontario pretty close to the borders of Ontario , Minnesota and Manitoba . It was about 1,600 acres of grain and some bush . Out from under an old machine shed run 3 or 4 birds and i asked my Uncle what they were . He replied , Prairie Chickens . Two summers ago i was back in that area visiting an old relative and it turns out that a family friend of this relative had bought the farm 45 or 50 years ago and they lived not too far away . I went over and introduced myself and we had a great conversation . I asked if it would be alright if i went and walked the farm . No problem . All the ancient buildings had long been torn down or collapsed but as i made my way from the road to a grove of cedars a few birds went running through the stubble and into the cedars . No doubt they were Prairie Chickens . Got thinking about this last night and much to my surprise the internet tells me that Prairie Chickens have long been extinct in that area . Hmmm ... Anybody else ever see a Prairie Chicken and particularly where they're supposed to be extinct or any other "out of place" animal ?
Extinct
- Thread starter atr
- Start date
- Location
- Saskatchewan
I'm not sure what it is, maybe animals are becoming desensitized to humans? Here in SK I have found that animals have been starting to spread their territory.
Growing up on a farm near the Qu'appelle valley we saw lots of wildlife, but in the last 5-10 years moose have become a regular sighting. As well as bears.
Regina has had a tonne of wildlife come back into the city. Moose are yearly sightings within city limits. I have personally seen a coyote after a goose in Wascana park in Regina.
It's not so much an 'extinction' that animals face. More of a relocation. And it is completely possible for animals to take back their territories.
If you are seeing, and identifying this correctly. You are seeing something unique.
Growing up on a farm near the Qu'appelle valley we saw lots of wildlife, but in the last 5-10 years moose have become a regular sighting. As well as bears.
Regina has had a tonne of wildlife come back into the city. Moose are yearly sightings within city limits. I have personally seen a coyote after a goose in Wascana park in Regina.
It's not so much an 'extinction' that animals face. More of a relocation. And it is completely possible for animals to take back their territories.
If you are seeing, and identifying this correctly. You are seeing something unique.
Not the same species but spotted a pair of Northern Spotted Owls at Murphy Lake (near Lac La Hache) BC. The northern part of their recognized territory is somewhere around Hope. Our property was in an old growth section of Douglas Fir. They have a unique call while hunting. We did not know what we were observing until arrival home and checked the call out on an Owl webpage. Pretty exciting stuff as this bird is considered to be endangered in its normal range. Turned it into a university that was studying this owl. They informed me that I was wrong, said it was a barred owl which is similar in appearance. One bird was in a low hanging branch and emitting that distinctive screech and its partner was on the ground listening for movement from the looks of things. A brain dead moment as I had a camcorder hanging by the door and never flashed it up. We know what we heard and saw.
the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
I was listening to a radio show one morning a few months back. They were interviewing an Alberta biologist who was talking about the few known pockets left in AB still holding Prairie Chickens aka Sage Grouse. It was a very intereseting show.
Used to see them around Skeleton Lake all the time. - dan
Really . Hwy 11 and 621 at Sleeman . The family farm is on the corner . North of 11 and west of 621 . I think Stratton is about 15 miles . Somewhere along there in one of the small towns there were two machine guns cemented into the front of a post office as a memorial to the guys from the area who died in WW1 . Those were my grand fathers guns . I saw them in the early '60s but don't recall the town . Probably long gone now .
badgreenbird
Regular
- Location
- Dawson Creek, BC
Lots of people call any of the grassland grouse "prairie chickens". The true Greater Prairie Chicken did occur for awhile in the area mentioned by the OP (there was a big and sudden range expansion well into Canada with the advent of grain farming, etc. but it didn't last). The range subsequently contracted and has been dwindling ever since. Basically they are extirpated from Canada. If the OP could get another look at the birds and note a few details... prairie chickens have horizontal barring on the front; sharp-tails have spots or small chevrons. Prairie chicken tail is dark and squarish when it flies away. Sharp-tails have a pointy tail, with a bit of white on each side. There are still a few Sage Grouse left in Canada; southeastern AB and southwestern SK as far as I know... but that is yet another different species
Hmm Prairie Chickens extirpated from Canada? Don't think so! I saw a quartet of the little buggers yesterday, see them regularly in Manitoba. Mind you I have also seen a couple small herds of Mule deer in Manitoba where they are also supposed to be extirpated
From what little I once learned about prairie birds, sharp tail, sage grouse and prairie chickens are 3 quite separate and distinct species........I've even heard people call Huns "prairie chickens", which of course they are not, as they are an introduced species.
- Location
- Saskatchewan
A few comments about names. Prairie Chickens are not "aka Sage Grouse" unless the person really doesn't know much about birds. However, almost everyone over 50 years old in Saskatchewan who is not a hunter still calls sharptail grouse ( our provincial bird!) prairie chickens. Kinda like Walleye are called Pickerel by the same folks.
So I suspect the first sighting was a really sharptail, but it is not inconceivable that it actually was a Greater Prairie Chicken. Greater prairie chickens lived where there was tall grass prairie back in the day. They were more widespread but decreasing rapidly in the 1950's. They are now officially absent from Canada, but who knows where a bird can end up? They still fly.
The word for animals/birds that have stopped living in a locality but continue to exist elsewhere is extirpated, not "extinct". The Heath Hen ( an Eastern subspecies of Prairie Chicken) is extinct. The Prairie Chicken, Greater and Lesser species, is not. Most prairie chickens now live in Nebraska and Kansas with a few stragglers as far north as Minnesota.
The OP would be the only one to know what he saw, but with normal powers of observation they are really not that difficult to distinguish. I hope is really was a Greater Prairie Chicken!
So I suspect the first sighting was a really sharptail, but it is not inconceivable that it actually was a Greater Prairie Chicken. Greater prairie chickens lived where there was tall grass prairie back in the day. They were more widespread but decreasing rapidly in the 1950's. They are now officially absent from Canada, but who knows where a bird can end up? They still fly.
The word for animals/birds that have stopped living in a locality but continue to exist elsewhere is extirpated, not "extinct". The Heath Hen ( an Eastern subspecies of Prairie Chicken) is extinct. The Prairie Chicken, Greater and Lesser species, is not. Most prairie chickens now live in Nebraska and Kansas with a few stragglers as far north as Minnesota.
The OP would be the only one to know what he saw, but with normal powers of observation they are really not that difficult to distinguish. I hope is really was a Greater Prairie Chicken!
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It was a beautiful early fall day , I was hunting whitetails .it was cold that morning but had warmed up to enough that I had taken my coat off.
Sitting and waiting watching, I looked to my right and on the road was a bird a big bird , I had a upland and migratory bird licences .
I watched it as I slowly walked towards the bird, I was going to shoot , looking threw the 9power scope chief scope I could see the long feathers on each side of its neck , it was aware I was there but not alarmed .
I never shot it as I couldn't identify it as any kind of a bird I had seen before,at home I researched what I had seen that morning and the pictures pointed to the "PinnatedGrouse" extinct for a long time .
Edmonton has a wonderful museum with the same bird I saw that morning ,stuffed behind glass.
Sitting and waiting watching, I looked to my right and on the road was a bird a big bird , I had a upland and migratory bird licences .
I watched it as I slowly walked towards the bird, I was going to shoot , looking threw the 9power scope chief scope I could see the long feathers on each side of its neck , it was aware I was there but not alarmed .
I never shot it as I couldn't identify it as any kind of a bird I had seen before,at home I researched what I had seen that morning and the pictures pointed to the "PinnatedGrouse" extinct for a long time .
Edmonton has a wonderful museum with the same bird I saw that morning ,stuffed behind glass.
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M12shooter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- East St. Paul, mb
Pics of my dad with "Pinnated grouse" from the 1950's. He said they were quite common on farmland bust disappeared by the early 1960's in Manitoba.
My dad went back to MB for a duck hunt, in 1964, and returned with the game regulations summary booklet. On the front was a picture of the Pinnated Grouse ( Prairie Chicken ) and the statement "do not shoot this bird" or something to that effect. They were almost gone from the prairies by then, apparently. There were 2 stuffed ones in a wildlife display case at my elementary school when I was a kid, but they have vanished, along with my school ! They each had a long feathers on the sides of the neck, like a wing feather, quite different from the sharp tail grouse.
bearkilr
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nowhere, ......just past the middle
You're seeing sharptail grouse, everyone in MB calls them prairie chickens,erroneously. AFAIK, there are no greater prairie chickens remaining in Canada. ND, SD, and Neb. still have a few from what I recall. Mule deer sightings along the MB/SK border are still pretty common.
