Forsynthias

Very pretty blazing mustard yellow that really pops in the landscape.
I took photos and tried to identify.
I think it's some kind of forsynthia.

Shrub view looks more mustardy toned yellow:


Than the closeups:


Possibilities for Zones 3&4:
Meadowlark forsythia, 8-10 feet height
Northern gold forsythia, 6-8 feet height
New Hampshire gold and sunrise varieties, 4 to 5 feet height
Gold tide or citrus swizzle, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet height, 4 feet wide

Ref:
ag.ndsu
jamestownsun

The Downy and The Goldenrod

I found an interesting tidbit about the downy woodpecker and the goldenrod plant.
Both are common/abundant in North Dakota, so maybe I'll get a chance to photograph them together some day.
The article said "Canada" goldenrod?
(Mag quote: "It attacks two species within the Canada goldenrod complex almost exclusively.")

Winter Treat For Downies
Birdwatching magazine December 2011 issue

See also:
fcps.edu
via
reddit

Here's a photo of a downy I took recently in November 2011.

Blogged previously here.
The hairy woodpecker looks very similar but is bigger.

Here's a photo of goldenrod I took in August 2011, which is the month it is plentiful all over the state.
Not sure if it's Canada goldenrod.



Blogged previously here.

There are 5 kinds of goldenrod in North Dakota.
npwrc
Asteraceae (The Aster Family)

MORE LINKS:

birdwatching
Goldenrod Bonus

From the same issue Birdwatching magazine:
ID Tips for the Pine Siskin
And
Peregrine Falcon vs. Snowy Owl

A Little Excitement Saturday

So we had a little excitement Saturday...





On a trail by the Missouri.

Here's a favorite inflight photo:


Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
npwrc
The bald eagle is uncommon in North Dakota and is usually seen along the Missouri River in late fall/early winter and in the spring during migration to its northern breeding grounds.
Bald eagles do not acquire their white-colored head and tail until about 4 years of age.
The bald eagle feeds primarily on fish.

Feb 2010 NDOutdoors magazine:
listed here
Nesting in Numbers - Active Bald Eagle Nests Up in ND - Feb 2010 - (330Kb PDF)
pdf direct link
It wasn’t until the mid-2000s that the number of nesting eagles climbed in North Dakota.
To date, North Dakota Game and Fish Department biologists have logged 103 individual nest sites, some of which are no longer in use because the trees have fallen or the eagles abandoned the sites.
In 2009, Game and Fish biologists estimated that 66 nests were occupied by bald eagles, though not all eagle nest sites were visited and verified. Bald eagle nests have now been reported in 29 of 53 North Dakota counties.

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cornell
Cornell has some good juvenile photos alongside the golden eagle for comparison.
I'd love to get photos of the golden eagle too.

The Long Flooded Summer

Previously:
Minot Souris Flood
Bismarck Missouri Flood

So Minot Souris river area went down fairly quickly:


But for the Bismarck area, it was a l-o-n-g flooded summer:


The stench, the bugs, blocked roads, closed off areas, people canoeing to their flooded houses.
I wonder what is going to happen to all those old cottonwoods that were standing in water for months.



Some of them must be over a 100 years old.
They look stressed.
I feel so sad for those trees.
The leaves are a dull gray green color. It looks similar to when it freezes before the trees have shed their leaves. The leaves turn an ugly color and fall off.
Later I found out that the area cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) in general have a fungus (septoria leaf spot, rust).

Note: Garrison Dam Spillway was closed 17 Aug 11. Releases were 85,000 cfs at that time.
Normal for this time of year (Sep) is 21,300 cfs and river elevation just under 6 feet.

Charts are mine.
Data is here:
Bismarck Missouri
Minot Souris

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Another one to add to my list of North Dakota birds photographed.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow
(Stelgidopteryx serripennis)
cornell
enature

Minot - Souris River

I've been tracking Minot's Souris river levels too, yet another record breaker.
The second crest rose so fast and high that they had little time to prepare for it.
The Souris has never been that high since records were kept dating back to 1881.
Other smaller towns along the Souris, like Burlington (above Minot), Sawyer, Velva (below Minot) also had flooding problems.

Charts mine, data here.



North Dakota Rivers - Souris highlighted:

ND Rivers
ND Cities
(Layer the two on top of each other.)

Garrison Dam - Bismarck - Missouri River

Garrison dam has turned into quite the tourist attraction this year with the first ever spillway opening and the high release levels.
I wasn't all that interested in going there because I had already seen photos and videos online.
I was wrong.
Much more impressive to go there in person and have the sensory experience of that water bursting and splashing out.



The down side is that viewing areas are more restricted so everyone sees only a few views and everyone is taking the same photos and the same videos. They have the spillway parking area so blocked up that at first I didn't even think we could get over to the west side where the water is rushing out. But you can. You can still park in a portion of the parking lot and then you walk across the highway over to the west side of the spillway. It is blocked for vehicle traffic, but foot traffic is still allowed.



The spillway has to be photographed facing the sun (South). High contrast situation. It was a challenge photographing/videoing the water and I didn't like my results much. We were there in the morning. I don't know if late afternoon would be any better for photography. The spillway is East/West direction.

There is usually an abundance of birds, including pelicans, to photograph around the dam area when the water isn't booming out. I could see birds in the far distance, so they were still around, just too far away to photograph.

Video
NDNG Aerial View of Garrison Dam



Video2
OmahaUSACE - Corps so better viewing access/different views.
Dated 6 Jun 11 - my notes say maybe about 120,000 cfs.
usace website

Video3
Typical tourist views.
Dated 11 Jun 11 - my notes say about 135,000 cfs.

This is what I have for later scheduled releases:
17 Jun11 - 150,000 cfs (That was the maximum.)
27 Jun 11 - 145,000 cfs
09 Jul 11 - 140,000 cfs
After 09Jul11, the releases will gradually be reduced by 5,000 cfs.
18 Jul 11 - 120,000 cfs
29 Jul 11 - 110,000 cfs
The schedule changes all the time.
Corps says effective 6 Jul 11, releases will be 140,000 cfs, so they must have reduced it sooner than previously scheduled.

I think the river level at Bismarck peaked at 19.25 feet on
01 Jul 11.
(Bismarck/Mandan - twin cities.)
That will probably be the crest reported for the year 2011.
The river hasn't been that high since the Garrison dam was built and in operation (1953).




Charts mine, data here.

North Dakota Rivers - Missouri, Little Missouri highlighted:
(Note flooding in Williston and Medora area also.)

ND Rivers
ND Cities
(Layer the two on top of each other.)

NOTE on cfs:
1 cubic feet per second (cfs) = 7.48 gallons per second
7.48 x 60 = 448.8 gallons per minute
448.8 x 1,440 = 646,272 gallons per day
140,000 cfs x 646,272 = 90,478,080,000 gallons per day

Flood

Lots of flood problems in North Dakota this year.
Garrison Dam Aerial Video
They opened the spillway for the first time since the dam was built in 1953.

Aerial Photos ND National Guard

Tutorial I used to make the text animation:
Water Text

I liked the Stream Text animation tut also.

Norwegians in North Dakota

This is the third and last post in "The Way It Was" series.
Previously:
1. Native Americans
2. German from Russia
Next is Norwegians.

Notes from:
The Way It Was
The North Dakota Frontier Experience
Book Two: Norwegian Homesteaders
c. 1998
By Everett C. Albers and D. Jerome Tweton, Editors

Introductory Section:
The Norwegians in North Dakota History
D. Jerome Tweton

Why North Dakota?
The good farmland in other areas of America had been taken. North Dakota area had a reputation as fertile region for farming.

Very few Norwegians went directly to North Dakota upon arrival in the United States. Some had been successfully farming elsewhere and reinvested where the land was free. Others saved up enough money to start a farming operation and then moved to North Dakota.

Like other immigrant groups, they tended to cluster together.



They preferred the river valley areas of the state.

Like the Germans from Russia, they also combined the various land laws to acquire large chunks of land.

That's about it for the introductory section on Norwegians. I was hoping to find more information on their story before they came to the United States.

The book continues with the individual settler stories recorded in the 1930s and on record in the state.

That's all I have of this series.
I blogged three: Norwegians, Native People, Germans from Russia
And briefly mentioned Book One on Sod-busters. There wasn't much of an introductory text in that one. It did give more details on collecting the stories.

Other books in the series:
1. The Cowboys & Ranchers (Book 3)
2. The Townspeople
3. The Horse and Buggy Doctors
4. The Teachers

I liked how these books were done. They don't give you a big heavy data dump. Just a nice brief clear introductory summary and then on to the personal stories and experiences.

Germans From Russian in North Dakota

I've been digging around in North Dakota history, focusing on how it all began, and where the people came from.
Previously: Native Americans

Notes from:
The Way It Was
The North Dakota Frontier Experience
Book Four: Germans from Russia Settlers c. 1999
By Everett C. Albers and D. Jerome Tweton, Editors

Introductory Section:
In Search of a Better Life: The Germans From Russia, by D. Jerome Tweton

“Der Erste hat den Tod,
Der Zweite hat die Not,
Der Dritte erst hat Brot.”

“For the first generation, there is death.
For the second, there is want.
Only for the third is there bread.”
—Black Sea German proverb

Why were there Germans in Russia?
Because Catherine The Great (German royal ancestry) Russian Ruler 1762-1796 offered them:
a. free land
b. exemption from service in the Russian army
c. religious freedom
d. local self-government
e. and tax exemption
to come on over to southern Russia and develop the lower Volga River and Black Sea regions.



Black Sea area is now southern Ukraine. Muldova borders Ukraine.
Bessarabia Map
Europe

Why did they leave Russia?
Well, everything went fairly well until Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881) came along and started taking away what Catherine The Great had offered. Then Tsar Alexander III (1881-1894) was even worse. He decided the Germans from Russia must be "Russianized" or assimilated into mainstream society.

Assimilate!

Besides the political situation, there was also land shortage and economic distress.

Why North Dakota?
They came to the US to farm and land scouts determined the best unclaimed land was in the Dakota Territory. They started in what is now called South Dakota and by 1884 had pushed up into North Dakota area.



How much land are we talking about?
I hadn't realized these were large chunks of land.
In Book One of the series, Sod-Busters, it says:
People learned how to use the land laws to their advantage. One could parlay the Preemption Act, the Homestead Act, and the Timber Culture Act (plant those trees!) into 480 acres (160x3=480).
160-acre preemption cost $1.25 an acre.
The most common combination was a homestead and tree claim for a total of 320 acres.
Sometimes unmarried couples would file on adjoining quarters of land and then marry afterward, giving them a 320-acre farm.
A father and four sons of legal age could homestead adjoining quarters forming an 800-acre farm (5x160=800).

Back to Book Four.
Now the part that got a little confusing to me was differentiating among various groups of Germans from Russia.
The above group as a whole is referred to as Black Sea Germans.
The Volga Germans were the first immigrants to leave Germany for Russia in the 1760s.
(immigrants - to vs emigrants - from)

Tweton further divides with:
Germans from the Caucasus region
Dobrudja Black Sea Germans (to ND via Canada)
German-Russian Mennonites
Volhynian Germans

Tweton says the Volga, Caucasus and Volhynian Germans never came in great numbers to North Dakota.

The point being that this was a diverse group. They came from different parts of the Russian Empire, spoke different German dialects, and had different religious backgrounds as well. They had a strong loyalty to their particular village/region.

This visual helped:

I added the arrows and cropped to fit my blog.

The time frame wasn't readily apparent to me at first either. I wasn't aware that Germans were moving to Russia over a long period of time, from the 1760s til 1850s? I'm still not sure how that all happened. Also, I think the Germans sometimes didn't come directly from Germany to Russia. Didn't some migrate after the Napoleonic wars to other areas like Poland? I'm not sure of the geography back then.

So are the different German dialects a lot different from each other? I don't know.
The only thing I know in German are swear words.
Donnerwetter noch einmal!
lol

I think the usual route to America was to take a train to Germany, probably a seaport like Hamburg, and then take a ship to New York. After that they took a train again, I think. Sometimes part of the journey within the US was by covered wagon.

Travel Routes for Germans leaving Russia to North America.

A Brief History of the Germans from Russia
says
First the colonists settled along the Volga River from 1764 to 1767.
Then later as Russia acquired Ukrainian lands north of the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula and Bessarabia, the colonists also settled in these areas as well.
[Article note: Bette's first name is Johann; his middle name is Ludvig.]

Karl Bodmer Paintings and North Dakota Natives

I've been digging around in North Dakota history, focusing on how it all began, and where the people came from. I saw some Bodmer paintings in a book (In North Dakota The Heritage of a People, by Tweton and Jelliff, c. 1976) which led me to find Bodmer's public domain works on the Internet.

My notes on the topic:

Karl Bodmer [Carl]
Swiss painter hired as artist on a Missouri River expedition in the 1800's.


(Cropped Wiki map.)

Here's a photo I took in July 2007 of the Missouri River North of Bismarck along Hwy 1804, which is a pretty scenic drive if you are ever in the area.



Bodmar's artwork is public domain and can be found at wiki commons.

Also found some Black and Whites.
And Keelboats.



Bison dance of the Mandan indians in front of their medecine lodge. (Medicine is spelled medecine.)

Wow. These guys were in good shape, lol.



Some of the places mentioned in the artwork:
Fort Union
Missouri River and the North Dakota/Montana border twenty-five miles from Williston.

Fort Pierre (SD)
The site where the Lewis and Clark Expedition met with the Teton Sioux is located nearby. It derives its name from Pierre Chouteau, Jr., a fur trader who established the fort.

Fort Clark
(Fort Osage)
Near Sibley, Missouri.

List of settlements along Missouri River.



Mandan Chief



Mato-tope
Mato-tope (Ma-to-toh-pe or Four Bears) (b. c.1795 - d. 30 Jul 1837)
Second chief of the Mandan tribe.
Lived on the upper Missouri River in what is now North Dakota.

Notes from the book:
The Way It Was
The North Dakota Frontier Experience
Book Five: Native People c. 2002
By Everett C. Albers and D. Jerome Tweton, Editors

Introductory Section:
Native People: Differences and Similarites, by D. Jerome Tweton

"We Indian people, like the winged ones, are all different, but like the winged ones, we are all alike."
—Hidatsa grandmother

Five groups of Native Americans in ND history:
1. Mandan
2. Hidatsa
3. Sanish (Arikara)
4. Chippewa (Ojibwa)
5. Great Sioux Nation (Lakota, Nakota, Dakota)
a. Dakota - Santee/Wahpeton/Sisseton
b. Nakota - Yankton/Yanktonai
c. Lakota - Tetons

They traveled different paths to the region, did not get along, and pursued a different way of life.

Chippewa drove the Nakota and Lakota onto the Plains.
Lakota pushed the Sanish northward.
Animosity between Chippewa and Sioux.
Conflict between Sanish and Lakota.

Mandan, Hidatsa, Sanish were farmers along Missouri River.
Chippewa were hunters/traders, some farmers.
Nakota hunters/farmers mix.
Lakota hunters.

Three different languages:
Sanish - Caddoan
Chippewa - Algonquian
Mandan, Hidatsa, Sioux - Siouan

They all hunted buffalo.

The intro concludes with:
“The westward march of white settlers and their demand for land, of course, led to conflict on the plains. The army with its chain of protective forts led the way for white settlement. The ultimate result was the reservation and the restriction of the Native People to those, often too small, reserves. Government policy attempted to turn hunters into farmers, to change Native People into white people. Toward that end Indian ways—ceremonies, religion, long hair, language—were banned. As the interviews in this book illustrate, the adjustment to the reservation was severe. The old life, the free life, was forever gone for all Native People.”



Bison Landscape

Battle of Little Bighorn was in 1876.
Wounded Knee was in 1890.
Dakota Territory was 1861-1889.

Zoo5 - Raptors

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

cornell
enature

Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)

cornell
enature

Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)
I've posted Red-Tailed Hawk pics before, but not a trio:
"OK everybody, say cheese."


cornell
enature

Hawks, Eagles, and Falcons of North Dakota

Dakota Zoo Facebook
Bald Eagle Pic
"The Dakota Zoo serves as a rehabilitation center for injured and orphaned raptors. These birds are on loan to us from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."

Zoo4 - Snowy Owl

One of my favorites at the zoo, was the Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus).

She (I think it's a female) would get a little excited— fluff up the wings/feathers, go around in a circle, and make noise— if I shuffled my feet in the pile of leaves on the trail. So that was quite entertaining. :) I should really capture these moments on video, but just wasn't prepared for that.

enature
Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaca)
"Strictly a bird of open country, it is practically never seen in a tree; it sits on the ground, a rooftop, or other exposed resting place."

wiki
Bubo scandiacus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms:
Strix scandiaca Linnaeus, 1758
Nyctea scandiaca Stephens, 1826
"Until recently, it was regarded as the sole member of a distinct genus, as Nyctea scandiaca, but mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data (Olsen et al. 2002) shows that it is very closely related to the horned owls in the genus Bubo."

Sign at Zoo said:
"...recently found to be very closely related to the Great Horned Owl through DNA analysis."
"adult male is nearly solid white, while the females are mottled with black."
"Unlike most other owls, they hunt primarily during the day."

owlpages
"These Owls are highly diurnal, although they may hunt at night as well."

Diurnality
diurnal [active during the day] vs nocturnal [night] vs crepuscular [twilight]

npwrc
"...the snowy is a regular wintering bird in North Dakota and can often be seen perched conspicuously on haystacks, fence posts and stumps."

Owls of North Dakota

Flickr

Zoo3 - Cat Family - Felidae2

More cats.
The bobcat and puma photos were my favorites for the more natural setting.

Puma:


enature
NatGeo

Bobcat (Lynx rufus):


Wiki
enature

There was supposed to be a Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis)
there too.

That got me thinking about Bobcat vs Lynx and Cat Family in general. So I studied that taxonomic info for a while.

Taxonomic Info


Pallas, Puma (Mt Lion/Cougar), Bobcat/Lynx


Tiger, Leopard:


Here's a photo of a pallas (Otocolobus manul)—new arrival at the zoo, evidently:

wiki

Small Mammal Checklist for North Dakota:
npwrc
Family Felidae:
(Felis concolor) Mountain Lion
(Felis lynx) Lynx
(Felis rufus) Bobcat

Zoo1- Photo Shoot

This is my first photo shoot at a zoo.
I took both of my cameras. The Canon S3 point and shoot (for wide angle and great DOF or sharp thruout) and the XSi Canon with telephoto lens for close ups and blurred backgrounds. It was a little challenging blurring out the fencing. Sometimes my cameras just would not focus correctly. I changed to Manual Focus setting. And then sometimes the situation just wasn't right either. If the subject was too close to the fence I couldn't blur it out.

Another thing to be mindful of are any subjects with white coloring had the tendency to get overexposed and I'd lose detail in that area (like the bald eagle). So maybe shoot a little underexposed/dark in those situations.

On to the photos - part 1:

Alaskan Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) or Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilus):

The bear looked kinda depressed or lonely or something, standing there with his head on the rock.
Brown Bear Links: wiki and NatGeo
Grizzly Links: wiki and NatGeo

American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis):

Wiki

River Otter (Lontra candensis):

Supposed to have these in North Dakota. Didn't know that.
On a npwrc checklist
Family Mustelidae - in with the weasel, ferret, badger, mink, skunk.
Wiki on Otter

Dakota Zoo Map
Dakota Zoo Facebook

Autumn Photos And Super Harvest Moon

I was in Bismarck and some of the trees are so gorgeous I about went off the road gawking at them!
Crazy woman. :)
Some of the big trees are fully changed in color yet have all their leaves. Wow!

Here's a tele shot which captures the autumn splendor feeling I had.


Climbed the hill at Hillside Park for a city view.
(Can see the Capitol Bldg. from there.)



Virtual Tour



I'm at the dots furthest to the right, click on those, and it gives you panning views with skyscraper Capitol Bldg. (Made me a little woozy watching it). The park was redone summer 2009 and the only vehicle entrance now is off Boulevard Ave. Used to be able to drive up to that hillside view. Now you have to hike up there.

Still plenty green yet this year.
More color to come.

And further down the hill, tiny crab apples at my feet. (I think that's what they were.)


The moon was visible during part of the day, snapped that too.


Ah yes, a glorious autumn day, indeed.

How about some tunes with that:
Neil Young - Harvest Moon (1993)

What's up with the moon this time of year?

"Not since Sept. 23, 1991 has a full moon occurred on the same night as the fall equinox, and it won't happen again until 2029."

"...the Harvest Moon typically occurs a few days or weeks before or after the fall equinox. This year, though, the full moon occurs just six hours after the equinox, making it what Phillips called a Super Harvest Moon."

"The Harvest Moon gets its name from agriculture...farmers depended on bright moonlight to extend the workday beyond sunset."

(Quoting astronomer Tony Phillips.)

Why can I sometimes see the moon during daylight hours?
"The answer to your question has two parts: why is the moon VISIBLE during the day, and why is it even ABOVE THE HORIZON during daylight hours. ..."

"...there is one other object which is just BARELY bright enough to be visible in the daytime, besides the moon and sun: that's the planet Venus - the third brightest natural light source in the sky. ..."

Why does the Moon sometimes come out during the day?
"...think of the Sun as a large light bulb, and the moon as a large mirror..."