Natural North Dakota

These warm summer nights are good times to get out and do some star gazing and perhaps learn some new constellations. We are heading toward a new moon on July 8, so if the sky is clear, the viewing should be quite good for several days.

I have heard about someone getting quite excited recently about seeing a scarlet tanager in Turtle Mountain. Scarlet tanagers, as the name implies are bright red with jet black wings and tail. They are also known as black-winged red birds, and have been described as “red with a capital R” or “blindingly gorgeous.” In size they are a little larger than a sparrow but smaller than a robin. If you are familiar with eastern bluebirds, they are close in size.

Summer will officially arrive this Sunday. The summer solstice will occur on Sunday, June 20, at 10:32pm CT. The summer solstice, of course, is when the northern hemisphere will be tilted furthest toward the sun than at any other time of the year. And it will also be the sun’s highest arch at midday for the year. It is all because of the earth’s angle of rotation and orbit, and for people of higher latitudes it is a special time. In the Southern Hemisphere of course it marks the first day of

We have had a red-bellied woodpecker in the neighborhood. It is hard to say how long it will stick around, but I have managed a good look at it a couple of times. I suspect that most North Dakotans are not familiar with this woodpecker. It is a bit smaller than a flicker and has black and white stripes across the back. The most obvious characteristic is a bright reddish-orange cap and nape on the males. Females have the red only on the back of the head. That red will catch your attention, and

I recently saw a few photographs of some impressive walleye taken from the Missouri River this spring in the vicinity of Bismarck. Walleye are undoubtedly the most popular fish in North Dakota, in terms of angling interest and table fare. It might surprise some of you, but the walleye is closely related to the perch. They are in the same Order (Perciformes) and Family (Percidae). Fish in their Order may be characterized by having a dorsal fin (that is the fin on the back of the fish) that is

We have some chipmunks around our yard that are providing us with some great entertainment. They have been busy scurrying around, often cleaning up spilled sunflower seeds from our bird feeders. And of course, they occasionally crawl up to a platform feeder to gather sunflower seeds until their cheek pouches look like they are going to burst before heading out to stash them for later use.

Many of you probably heard the news about the wildfires in the badlands earlier this spring. Areas around Medora, the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and some other areas have burned. In all, a few thousand acres of native prairie were blackened. We tend to think of fires, whether in a prairie or forest fire, as destructive. But we need to realize that fire was a natural factor in grassland formation and maintenance. And once a fire started to spread, in some cases it could have

Perhaps like me you have heard those sounds from overhead during the spring and fall bird migrations and looked skyward to see what was causing it. But nothing was up there! But then it continued. Eventually a flock of birds was spotted up there. Way up there! And they could seemingly disappear and reappear depending on the lighting. If they happened to be flying a little lower, you would have noticed that they were large birds with a long neck and legs sticking out behind. They are sandhill

Every day is a great day for getting out and enjoying a little “Natural North Dakota.” But this time of the year is a real treat. The birds are active and warblers are moving through the area. Mammals and other animals are quite active as well. And if you have some woodlands nearby, and most of us do, now is a great time to go explore those woodlands and enjoy the woodland spring wildflowers.

I trust you are enjoying the song of the American robin this spring! It has been a long winter, and hearing their song makes spring official and gives us thoughts of warmer days ahead.