Kelso, a 44-year-old who monitors the locations of the birds with radio collars, gently opened the four gates to the 30-foot by 50-foot pen. Noise from the chain-link fencing stirred the curious creatures.
One prairie chicken ventured out into the grassland. Eight others followed in a thunder of flapping wings as they flew west over the wide-open land.
Wade Harrell, coastal prairies project director for the Nature Conservancy of Texas, pointed to the cloudless horizon.
“That’s where the habitat line stops for the chickens, so to speak,” he said.
