It’s that time of year! The fall equinox occurs this year on Sunday, September 22. At precisely 7:43am CT, the sun will be directly over the equator.

For many, be they native North Dakotans, transplants, or those just passing through, it often takes some time to warm to the wide-open spaces of the North Dakota landscape. Although there is a lot of cropland, I suspect that for many people, the wide-open expanses of prairie are a large part of what calls people to love and appreciation of the landscape.

Sharp-tailed grouse season opens up on September 14. To quote Morris Johnson and Joseph Knue from their Feathers from the Prairie (1989), “no other upland bird has been in the state so long or in such numbers.”

September is upon us! As you have probably noticed, the days are getting shorter and cooler. The birds have started migrating, and the fall foliage will soon start to come out.

Are you seeing yellow? As you look out on the North Dakota landscape this time of year, it seems that there are yellow flowers everywhere. It is the color of the season!

Much of central and eastern North Dakota is pothole country. As you look out at all those sloughs, it appears that the vast majority of them are dominated by cattails. Those sloughs have been changing more than most people realize.

When traveling across North Dakota and looking out at the rangeland, some people see just a bunch of grass. However, it is much more than that! An important step in understanding the ecology of our rangelands is to have a working knowledge of what range ecologists call ecological sites and their associated ecological site descriptions.

Driving down the roads in North Dakota this time of year, particularly gravel roads, one is likely to occasionally see a sunflower in bloom with broad leaves, producing a flower head, and growing to around 3 to 6 feet tall. That is probably the common sunflower (Helianthus annuus), the same species that is grown in the sunflower fields.

Traveling across North Dakota, particularly areas northeast of the Missouri River, you'll occasionally see signs near wetlands that identify the area as a Waterfowl Production Area, or WPA.

This time of year, the prairie landscape is awash in color. Two of the more commonly known wildflowers, prairie coneflower and purple coneflower, will soon be flowering across the state.