"I feel fortunate for the chance to be around extraordinary, well-informed and dedicated birders and prairie people such as those I’ve met in Grand Forks. North Dakota and this area are amazing when it comes to birds and prairie.
We happen to be in the Central Flyway for migrating birds, which means hundreds of thousand of birds stop or fly over from faraway places such as Argentina. They breed here or farther north, then fly south again when the weather turns.
Meanwhile, other birds migrate here from their home territories in the north — birds such as the startlingly white snowy owl or those big flocks of tiny snow buntings.
On Tuesday, I sat and listened to John Flicker, president of the National Audubon Society, who spoke at a private gathering in town. Flicker was here to see the prairies of the Red River Valley.
Genevieve Thompson, executive director of Audubon North Dakota, and Dave Lambeth, birder and conservationist, also spoke at the gathering. And as I listened, their words brought to mind memories of years on the prairie, and I recalled vivid images of the prairie from years ago.
Thompson wanted Flicker to see our “Alkali Flats” prairie-preservation project west of Grand Forks. It’s an area that might look like a piece of forgotten land, but it has not been forgotten by a large number of birds and some animals."
Get the Story:COLUMNIST DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: Birds add special magic to region (The Grand Forks Herald 9/17)
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