Natural North Dakota

Most all North Dakotans are familiar with white-tailed deer and mule deer, but I suspect that most are not familiar the differences between the two.

Bats get a lot of attention during the Halloween season. Maybe it is due to their nighttime activity or that there really are vampire bats, but bats seem to give people a bad case of the “heebie-jeebies.” At any rate, it is time to be more appreciative of these much maligned and misunderstood animals.

When you think of the sights and sounds of fall in North Dakota, flocks of snow geese and other waterfowl overhead come to mind, as do the leaves changing color. But one thing that's often overlooked are the large flocks of red-winged blackbirds that swoop and swirl over sunflower fields and other areas.

It is the sights and sounds of waterfowl overhead that perhaps best exemplify fall. Biologists have long recognized predictable seasonal migrations of birds from their breeding grounds to non-breeding grounds, or what we would generally refer to as wintering grounds. They have also come to recognize four basic routes or flyways for migratory waterfowl in North America.

Hackberry is a medium to tall tree that grows to between 40-60 feet. It ranges roughly east of a line from North Dakota south to Oklahoma. In North Dakota it has been documented in most counties in the eastern half of the state and would probably be listed as occasional.

Have you ever noticed that some ducks get up from the water quickly and easily while other have to paddle away for a considerable distance before getting airborne? Ducks can be categorized in two groups, puddle ducks (aka dabbling ducks) and diving ducks. The differences between these two groups relate to how they look, fly, and eat.

There are three types of prairie, and in North Dakota, the tallgrass prairie historically dominated the Red River Valley. As the name implies, the tallgrass prairie was dominated by tall grasses that grow to three feet or more. Historically the tallgrass prairie has been estimated to have covered between 140-170 million acres, but I have seen estimates that only 1-4 percent remains.

North Dakotans have endless opportunities to get out and enjoy nature, and those opportunities are not restricted to summer.

Most North Dakotans are well aware of the rich soils of the Red River Valley, what was once glacial Lake Agassiz. Although less well known, glacial Lake Souris also has rich soils. It covered much of Bottineau and McHenry counties as well as portions of Rolette and Pierce counties.

Have you ever seen a bobcat? If so, I suspect you are among the few North Dakotans that have. It might come as a surprise to learn that they reside in the state, particularly in the west.