Chuck Lura

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.

The “Red,” or Red River of the North, forms the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. It begins at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers near Wahpeton-Breckenridge, then meanders northward through Fargo-Moorhead and Grand Forks-East Grand Forks before reaching the Manitoba border near Pembina.

The landscape can look lonely during the winter months. Many commonly observed animals from summer seem to simply disappear during winter — when the season rolls around, animals basically have three options: migrate, hibernate, or stay and endure it.

Have you ever heard of the Orion nebula? The Orion nebula is the brightest diffuse nebula in the sky. It can be seen with the naked eye in the constellation Orion. Orion (“The Great Hunter”) is one of the easiest constellations to identify in the winter sky.