We had a reddish sparrow sized bird at the feeder the other day. Once again I had to look closely to determine if it was a purple finch or a house finch. It had a reddish breast and forehead with brown wings, and a light underside with noticeable brown stripes. Those are the markings of a house finch.

It is that time again. The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up next weekend, Friday February 14 through Monday the 17. It is a joint project of the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. As many of you know, it is an effort in which amateur birders can help scientists better understand the population dynamics and movements of birds.

Have you been hearing the occasional hoot of a great horned owl during the night? They have vocalizations in association with territoriality and courtship. And be ready to hear it more frequently. Territories are being announced and contested, and the males are calling to the females. Great horned owls are known for their early mating season which will start soon, with egg laying starting in late February.

We have had a red squirrel gobbling up the sunflower seeds in our platform feeder for much of the winter so far. But it has been providing us with some great entertainment, so we just have to put out some extra sunflower seeds to make sure the birds are also well fed.

I was perusing Vernon Bailey’s Mammals of North Dakota from 1926 recently. He recognized two species of porcupines in the state. He went on to note that the yellow-haired, or Rocky Mountain porcupine was mainly found west of the Missouri River and that a specimen collected in 1914 in the Turtle Mountains was the easternmost documentation of the species. The black-haired or Canada porcupine was an eastern species with a couple records in the eastern part of the state along the Red River and in

“Bright clear sky over a plain so wide that the rim of the heavens cut down on it around the entire horizon…. Bright, clear sky, to-day, to-morrow, and for all time to come.” Ole Rolvaag’s Giants in the Earth is a classic novel about pioneer life on the prairies of Dakota Territory. The book opens with that description of the prairie. Perhaps like me, you often attempt to visualize the Dakota landscape of a couple hundred years ago. I think about that more now during the winter months when the

We have been seeing chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, both the downy and hairy woodpeckers, and blue jays at our bird feeders this winter. But even though the feeders have been busy, I haven’t seen anything unusual or any of the birds from up north yet this winter.

Unfortunately, I suspect that it went largely unnoticed by the general public, but December 5 was World Soil Day. Soils may not make many people’s heart go pitter-patter, but in North Dakota and elsewhere where agriculture is so important, the importance of healthy soil cannot be overestimated.

Most of the lakes and ponds in the state now have a lid on them. I suspect that the casual observer may think that what goes on in the water below probably hasn’t changed much other than the water is colder. But there is a lot more to it.

In a previous column I made the case for what we might call the revenge of the farm boys--how, as a farm boy gone bad into academic life, I have now signed on to write a state-of-the-field history of agriculture on the Great Plains. My students, of course, think I am old enough to write the whole thing from personal memory.