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.

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.

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 cranes.

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.

My wife and I were recently discussing the Covid-19 pandemic, and the subject of bats came up. “What eats bats” she asked. Not much, I speculated. So I had to do a little checking up on bats.

We are coming upon spring cleaning time if it has not started already. It is time to do some outdoor yard work and the like. But when it comes to clearing out those old dead or dying trees and branches, you might want to reconsider, unless there is some potential for damage to person and property.

The sharp-tailed grouse have put on their dancing shoes! The males, that is. As dawn breaks across the grasslands over much of North Dakota from roughly April through May, the sounds of what can be described as the faint muffled hammering of a jackhammer along with an abundance of clucking and cackling can occasionally be heard off in the distance. Those sounds, which may carry for a half a mile or more, announce the annual courtship displays of the male sharp-tailed grouse. The objective, of course is to impress the judges, the hens, that they are the best mate around.

Some of you may have heard the news recently about the seventy-year-old albatross that hatched another chick. It got me thinking about the life span of our feathered friends. I have wondered for example if it is the same bald eagle I have been seeing during the spring and fall migration in the same tree on the shoreline of Lake Metigoshe, or the wrens in our birdhouse are the same birds as last year. We may have a tendency to think that some of these birds are the same ones, but that is probably not accurate.