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Stories in North Dakota

What’s in this Season?

North Dakota’s ever-changing seasons serve up immeasurable discoveries in nature. Explore what’s happening in nature this season.

Lightning strikes the prairie out of a pink-purple sky.
Strike Lightning strikes the prairie at Cross Ranch Preserve in North Dakota © Richard Hamilton Smith
Pasque flowers.
Pasqueflower Pasqueflowers are some of the first flowers to bloom on the prairie in the spring. © Steve S. Meyer

The signs of spring are always welcome after a long North Dakota winter. From early spring flowers popping up through the snow-crusted prairie to critters frantically seeking a mate, spring is a time for beauty and renewal. Enjoy the trickling waters of a slowly thawing river or lace up your boots for a tromp along a muddy trail. Take time to observe the hints of spring all around you.

Cuteness alert

Spring has sprung when cinnamon-colored baby bison appear on the prairie. 

Most bison calves are born in May and June. Pregnant cows first chase off their offspring from the previous spring: yearlings that stay with the herd but can no longer rely on their mother’s care once a newborn arrives. Shortly before giving birth, a cow will move to the edge of the herd or leave the group altogether. The process takes only about 20 minutes and the calf can stand on its own after another half hour and run with the herd within one to three hours. 

A bison calf and its mother.
Bison on the prairie Bison calf and mama at the Niobrara Valley Preserve. © Chris Helzer
A bison calf rests in the grass.
Baby buffalo A bison calf rests in the grass. © Morgan Heim

After their first few weeks, young bison become more adventurous and may wander away from their mothers to explore the herd. They often form nursery groups: two to three dozen calves that are tended by a few cows. This is a good time to watch the young animals—bison watchers can see them learn from their mothers, begin to graze and sort out who is dominant in their groups.  

Early blooms

The pasque flower is one of the first flowers to bloom on North Dakota’s grasslands. You may even see it blooming out of the melting snow. Pasque flowers thrive on prairies with sandy soils, like TNC’s Pigeon Point Preserve. Nature writer Aldo Leopold wrote in A Sand County Almanac, “The chance to find a pasque flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.” Find a pasque flower and know unquestionably that spring has arrived on the prairie.  

Pasque flowers.
Pasque Flower The pasque flower is one of the first to bloom, often coming up while snow is still on the ground. © Matt Fisher/TNC

Spectacular courtship

The courting displays of sharp-tailed grouse are fascinating to watch in the spring. These chicken-like birds gather at a lek, a patch of ground where males compete for the attention of hens by performing a dance display at dawn. Dancing grouse spread their wings, lower their heads and raise the short, bright yellow feathers above their eyes.   

A sharp tailed grouse performing its mating dance.
Sharp-tailed grouse The male Sharp-tailed Grouse display to attract females on communal dancing grounds, called leks. © Rick Bohn of USFWS

The tail is raised and spread like a fan and the birds rush forward or turn in tight circles, rapidly stamping their feet and rattling their tail feathers. The males inflate and deflate prominent purple neck sacs, cooing and cackling. They also fight—within the lek, each bird has a small territory. These territories are hotly contested, as hens may prefer males in some locations over others. 

Nesting season

Piping plovers nest in North Dakota in May. These shorebirds return from winter along the Gulf Coast in April and lay their eggs by mid-May. The nesting habitat they like best is secluded beaches with little vegetation along lake shores, and they find those ideal conditions by the alkali lakes at TNC's John E. Williams Preserve. Piping plovers have declined throughout their range and TNC has been actively managing the birds at the preserve to increase their numbers. During May, June and July, the beach areas at the preserve are closed to visitors to prevent disturbing the nesting birds.

A piping plover on a rocky beach.
Piping plover The Nature Conservancy's John E. Williams Preserve in North Dakota provides rare and important habitat for piping plovers © Richard Hamilton Smith

Places to visit

  • View of badlands.

    Theodore Roosevelt National Park

    Catch a glimpse of newborn bison sprinkled throughout the herd at this national park. They’re easy to spot with a reddish coat that contrasts the dark brown color of older animals. Explore

  • Wild bergamot blooming in a prairie.

    Pigeon Point Preserve

    Pasque flowers can be found blooming at this TNC preserve in April, an unquestionable sign of spring! Explore.

  • Close up of a woman holding the reins of a horse.

    Pembina Gorge

    This recreation area near the Manitoba border is home to 30 native plant species and 21 animal species categorized as rare in the state. Enjoy a hike, or if you’re feeling more adventurous, consider mountain biking or horseback riding. Explore

A buck deer in the snow.
Winter In the winter, deer browse on mostly white pine and white cedar. © Dominique Braud/TNC Photo Contest 2022

Winter in North Dakota is cold and snowy, but that should not keep you from exploring the outdoors! The trails are quiet and chances are, you may be the only one braving the elements. Embrace the solitude and soak in the mental health benefits the snowy plains and icy ponds have to offer. Bundle up and grab your snowshoes. There is so much going on in nature even on the chilliest days.

Birds

Winter is the best time for birding because there are no leaves on the trees. It makes spotting birds much easier. Although many birds flee North Dakota during the cold winter months, we have some year-round resident birds that you can surely spot around the state, like American Goldfinch, woodpeckers and blue jays. You could even see a Northern shrike, which visits the Dakotas in the winter, returning to northern Canada to nest in the summer. These birds are fierce hunters. Shrikes attack and kill a variety of prey: other birds, mice, lizards, insects; at times even tackling prey larger than themselves (a shrike is about the size of a robin). They kill using their hooked beak; their feet are too weak to kill with grasping talons like hawks and owls. A shrike might not eat its prey immediately. Instead, the bird carries its prey to a larder where it will store food items impaled on barbed wire, thorns, broken twigs, or simply wedged into the fork of two branches. Sighting a shrike could be difficult. In the winter, you might first find evidence of shrike predation—dead sparrows or mice skewered on thorns or barbed wire—before spotting a shrike hunting nearby.

Occasionally, North Dakota sees snowy owls, visiting all the way from Alaska, Arctic Canada and Greenland. Their plumage reflects their northern home: the birds are white as snow, although females and young birds are barred with black. Their face is always bright white and highlights their brilliant yellow eyes.

Bison

Much of North Dakota’s wildlife either migrates or hibernates to escape the harsh winter. But bison seem to thrive in the cold. They’re animals built for life on the prairie year-round. Visitors to parks and preserves with bison herds enjoy watching bulls, cows and calves mingling together during the summer months. Come late fall, the bulls wander off to form “bachelor bands” and the cows, calves and non-breeding bulls stay together in small herds. These dispersed, separate groups make for fewer animals looking for food in the same place once winter snows make forage hard to find. It’s a good survival strategy.  

A bison covered with snow.
Frosty Bison The thick winter coat sported by bison means these animals are built to withstand the harsh winters of the plains. © Chris Burke /TNC Photo Contest 2021

Bison eat less in the winter. Their metabolism actually slows, allowing them to survive on less forage. Using powerful neck muscles, bison swing their massive heads to push snow out of their way to reach forage beneath. Bison also are good at staying warm. Their summer coat turns dark brown in the fall and develops a dense undercoat of woolly hair that provides insulation during cold weather. Guard hairs provide added protection and are longest on the front half of a bison’s body, covering the head, neck, forelimbs and tall hump above the shoulders. The winter coat on a bull bison can be as much as six inches thick over the hump. During a storm, bison turn and face into the wind, causing these long hairs to lie down against the body, maximizing their insulating ability. Their winter coat insulates so well that a storm’s snow simply accumulates on the animals, unable to be melted by their body heat.

Wildlife Detective

Winter’s snows provide the perfect chance to flex and grow your wildlife tracking skills. From the common hoofprints of white-tailed deer to the distinct paw prints of coyotes, you never know whose tracks you’ll spot in the snow throughout TNC's preserves.

A single pawprint of a coyote in the snow.
An adult coyote in the snow.
Two deer in the snow.
A red fox leaving tracks in the snow.
Raccoon tracks in the snow.

Places to visit

There is no shortage of places to experience the natural world in a North Dakota winter, but here are some of our recommendations.

  • Lake Metigoshe State Park: Located near the Canadian border, Lake Metigoshe is a winter wonderland, getting you outdoors and enjoying nature through activities like cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, fat tire biking and ice fishing.

  • Devil’s Lake: Try your hand at ice fishing on Devil’s Lake. It’s a great way to get outdoors in the chilliest months. (Don’t worry – you can get a heated icehouse!)