Natural North Dakota

One of the common signs of spring is when we look up at the trees and see something different up there. The trees must be leafing out! Spring is officially here! But much of what we see up there is more likely flowers.

Both grasslands and birds are rapidly decreasing in Canada — less than 15% of the native grasslands remain. To address the issue, Birds Canada has developed the Bird-Friendliness Index.

If you like to watch falling stars, this next month or so is a good time to see them. The Lyrids meteor shower will start soon, and it overlaps with the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. Between the two, the show will run to the end of May.

Shortly after beginning their journey down the Missouri River in April of 1805 after spending the winter at Fort Mandan, Meriwether Lewis wrote in his journal about an animal that Captain Clark had recently observed: “Captain Clark walked on shore today and informed on his return, that passing through the prairie he had seen an animal that precisely resembled the burrowing squirrel, accept in point of size, it being only about one third as large as the squirrel, and that it also burrows.”

It seems that every year when spring comes around, we are ready to go outdoors. Nature has much to offer, but all too often summer arrives, and we realize we did not get to enjoy the spring like we had hoped.

The short days of winter are starting to fade away as the days continue to lengthen. And next Wednesday, March 20, is the spring equinox.

If you have never been to the petrified forest in Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s South Unit, you might want to consider doing so this year. And even if you have been there before, another visit to see these remnants of another time is a worthwhile experience.

I recently happened upon the above map of the Red River Watershed. I suspect that the watershed is much larger than most of us would think.

One of Prairie Public’s more popular television shows is Nature. Some of you may have seen the episode a few weeks ago on shorebird migrations. The show addressed how shorebirds navigate the trip, the risks of migration, and how human activity is creating problems for the birds. One of the shorebirds featured was the marbled godwit on its migration from Panama to the Dakotas.

January is in the rearview mirror, as is a good portion of February. And whether Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow or not, no self-respecting North Dakota groundhog would stick their head out of the burrow in early February. Any thoughts of spring are premature. Or are they?

The Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up next week, February 16-19. This annual citizen science effort is a collaboration between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada to help scientists better understand the bird population dynamics and movements.

I recently saw a news article about a 240-pound lake sturgeon caught in the Detroit River in 2021. That’s a big fish! Perhaps someday North Dakota will produce a lake sturgeon of that size.

Most North Dakotans are familiar with the great horned owl. But I suspect few are familiar with the short-eared owl — even though, of the half-dozen or so owls native to the state, the short-eared owl is most closely associated with the wide open spaces of North Dakota prairie.

In the 1890s, a group of Shakespeare enthusiasts released 100 European starlings in New York City’s Central Park so that all the birds in Shakespeare’s works could be observed there. The rest, as they say, is history. By the 1920s they had spread west to Michigan and Wisconsin. The first documented starling in North Dakota came on March 30, 1938 near Upham, ND.

I recently came across a page about clams, or freshwater mussels, from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. It reminded me of a time, a few years ago, a cabin owner at Lake Metigoshe found a clam in the sediment near his cabin and asked me to identify it. This clam, “Sam the Clam,” was becoming a local celebrity. I could not identify it, but with the help of Dr. Andre DeLorme at Valley City State University it was tentatively identified as a giant floater (Pygandon grandis).

Have you ever wondered what traveling the North Dakota landscape was like during the winter a couple hundred years ago? The journals of David Thompson, fur trader, explorer, cartographer, and surveyor, give some insight. Thompson was hired by the Northwest Company to identify potential trading post locations around the 49th parallel. During the winter of 1797, he led an expedition from present-day Manitoba to the Mandan Villages.

2023 is drawing to a close, and 2024 will begin on Monday. But of course, the new year hasn't always been determined by a calendar date.

I recently listened to a podcast about the ecological problems associated with feral pigs in Canada. These feral pigs have been called the most prolific invasive mammal in Canada, and the situation is being described as "spiraling out of control."

It may surprise you, but wolverines are native to North Dakota, particularly the area in and around the Pembina Hills. Alexander Henry obtained pelts of wolverines at his trading post near Pembina in the early 1800s from in and around the Pembina Hills, Pembina River, Park River, and Red River.