March 1 signals the start of meteorological spring. One day, it might be record-breaking warmth; the next, a storm or blizzard strikes. Well this year, the former has been case, as unseasonably high temperatures in the Red River Valley of the North have been setting records. These Canada geese, as captured by Grand Forks photographer Michael Bogert, may or may not …
The Foothills Trail, which connects Pineridge, Maxwell and Reservoir Ridge Natural Areas near Fort Collins, Colo., was the destination of photographer Jeff Olson and his wife, Joanne Plager Burke Olson, this past weekend. The trail is 9.6 miles long and offers a remote feeling as well as opportunities to see plenty of wildlife. It can be reached from several trailheads …
My spirit has been battered in this past year, like so many. I am blessed with a house and a garden and a loving family, yet life has kept me close to home and hearth with innumerable chores and obligations. My father died at the end of May and we buried him at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery in July. …
“The mountains are calling and I must go.” John Muir wrote these words in the early years of the 20th century. He lived much of his life near to the mountains. Mountains have been on my mind of late, although I don’t live near any. Perhaps the trigger was that one night not long ago we watched an excellent documentary …
Petrichor: The smell in the air before or as rain falls on hot, dry, stony ground (petra = stone; ichor = divine fluid. As defined by one of my favorite authors, Robert Macfarlane, on his Twitter account. Word of the Day March 18, 2017 by Robert Macfarlane I love this word and I love the smell. My first memory of recognition …
My cousin, Ron Bowman, and his wife, Marsha, and their siblings have been tapping about 190 trees for the past eight years in an 80-acre forest not far from La Farm in rural Ashby, Minn. But this year was not a good year, according to Ron. They started tapping in February. “It started early, got too cold, our trees never …
Here’s a question for some of you who spend a lot of time in the outdoors in the fall: How was your pheasant season? “Good enough, I guess,” would be my response. All of us who hunt pheasants in North Dakota are loathe to say anything gloomier than that, because saying “It wasn’t all that great” might mean admitting: We …
Editor’s note: Jim Fuglie wrote this before this past weekend’s pheasant hunting opener in North Dakota. Tomorrow, I’ll join about 90,000 or so of my best friends on one of North Dakota’s favorite days, hunting pheasants on the opening day of pheasant season. I thought I might share here, for those of you who don’t read a magazine called Dakota Country, an article …
Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons has an eye for the outdoors. Here are some of the photos he took recently on a trip to western North Dakota. Among the shots is the majestic Milky Way photo taken above the Medora Musical at the Burning Hills Amphitheater just as the show concluded. The bull elk pictured came out to feed above the …
Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons took in the 50th Medora Musical recently. Here are some classic shots of the summer favorite. Among the performers in the musical is Misti Koop from Grand Forks.
Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons captured these closeup shots of the common loon Thursday night in northern Minnesota. The bird was adopted as the official state bird of Minnesota in 1961. They are known for their cries, wails and yodels — their eerie, echoing calls are a distinctive feature of Minnesota’s northern lakes.
Spectacular sunsets are the norm in the Northland, as evidenced by these stunning images captured Tuesday by Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons.
Over the past couple of years, I have written several times about the decline in North Dakota’s wildlife population since the Bakken Boom began. It may just be a coincidence that numbers of game species (deer, sage grouse, bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelope, to name a few) have been decimated at the same time as the big oil boom took …
Day 6 of our recent travels took us back through the northern part of Yellowstone National Park, and after a family lunch in the old gold mining town of Cooke City, Mont., we said our goodbyes and headed to Cody, Wyo., and across northern Wyoming to Buffalo. More beautiful landscapes, and lots of wildlife, including elk right in town at …
Day 2 was another amazing day in Yellowstone National Park. More beautiful scenery and beautiful animals.
Day 1 at Yellowstone was amazing. Beautiful scenery, beautiful animals (even if they are shedding their winter coats and just starting to regrow antlers).
This pair of eagles is out teaching its young ones to hunt today by the bridge over the Red River at Drayton, N.D