Before the sun clears the horizon on an April morning, a curious drama unfolds on certain bare knolls of the prairie. There the sharp-tailed grouse — the state's own game bird — gather on their ancestral dancing grounds, called leks, and the males begin to dance: wings spread, tails erect and rattling, feet stamping the ground in a blur as they whirl and coo to win the watching hens.

A Ballroom on the Bare Prairie

The same grounds are used year after year, generation after generation, and the dance is fierce and ancient, the males facing off in spinning duels for the best patch of the lek. A hidden watcher, arriving before dawn and sitting motionless, may witness a spectacle few ever see — one of the prairie's oldest performances, staged at first light.

From the almanac's reckoning:

• The sharp-tailed grouse is North Dakota's state game bird.
• Males gather to dance on ancestral grounds called leks each spring.
• The same dancing grounds are used year after year for generations.

The sharptail needs open grassland to thrive, and its dance is a barometer of the prairie's health. The almanac counts the lek among the wonders of the plains spring, and counsels the patient early riser to seek one out at least once in a lifetime.