Natural North Dakota

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.

When was the last time you laid back and savored the cosmos on a warm summer night? The stars, of course, are brightest during a clear night with a new moon. There was a new moon on July 5, so we are heading toward a full moon on July 21.

I mentioned in last week’s Natural North Dakota that estimates for how many seeds a cottonwood tree could produce in a year may range up to 48 million. Clearly all those small seeds do not develop into cottonwood trees. But a very small number do fall on the ground with the right conditions of soil, moisture, sunlight, little competition, and other factors to become the next generation of cottonwood trees. It is a different story for some other plants — acorns from oak trees, for example.

If the cottonwoods in your area have not started releasing their cotton, they will be soon. It is that time of year!

If you spend time around marshes during the summer months you are likely to become familiar with the yellow-headed blackbird. The name of this bird is quite descriptive, but it is occasionally referred to (with tongue firmly in cheek) as a “black bodied yellow bird.”

I encourage you to consider a trip to the International Peace Garden this summer. There is much to see and do there, including exploring a little Natural North Dakota and Manitoba in the Turtle Mountain aspen forest.

Summer is upon us! It seems that every year, questions come up on how to identify poison ivy, and what to do if a dog has been sprayed by a skunk. A little reminder of identification of poison ivy and treatment of skunk spray might be helpful.

The Amphibians and Reptiles of North Dakota website lists eight species of snakes documented in the state. I assume that most North Dakotans are familiar with many of these snakes, but I suspect that few have ever heard of or seen a smooth green snake (Opheodrys vernalis).

Whether it's watching robins in the yard, seeing an eagle soar overhead, or trying to identify a bird making that sweet call from some thick brush, birds seem to draw our interest. But many among us may not be aware of a couple aids that can help enhance our birding experiences.

I was perusing Robert Stewart’s Breeding Birds of North Dakota (1975) recently and noticed that he listed three species of gulls nesting in the state: California, Franklin’s, and ring-billed. He also noted that herring gulls were nesting on Stump Lake back in 1884.

A keystone species can be loosely defined as a species that has a disproportionately large effect on a community. They are critical components. They hold things together. And their removal from a community can set off a series of events that change the community into something quite different.