For David Drake, nothing compares to a Wisconsin dawn shared with Tympanuchus cupido, the drummer of love.
If this sounds a little suspicious, rest assured. For Drake, a UW-Madison assistant professor of forest and wildlife ecology, such a morning is all about science. The drummer of love is the greater prairie chicken and Drake and others have watched in dismay as the colorful and once common bird has struggled to hang on in the state as the prairies in which it lives are destroyed. The population has shrunk to about 1,200 and the bird has been declared threatened by the state of Wisconsin.