Attwater's Last Stand

You may not know that there are only 72 Attwater's Prairie Chickens living in the wild today. A hundred years ago there were over a million along coastal Louisiana and Texas. Fifty-two of these last survivors of the species reside in the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, an 8,000-acre preserve in east Texas, not far from the LBJ Ranch.
During mating season (this is mating season) male APCs inflate the orange air sacs on their necks and 'boom' while dancing frantically in circles--all to attract an attractive APC of the female persuasion.
We hiked in the Refuge yesterday and this is our official wildlife count:
--White-tailed hawk: 1
--Killdeer: 2
--Armadillo: 1
--Buffalo: 46 (recently introduced by the Wildlife Service)
--Attwater's Prairie Chicken: 0
Alas, no boomers for us. -DJN