Stuff Seth Sees

Willow Ptarmigan - Denali NP - Wild

It’s been about 10 days of temperatures above 90° in ND, with 4 days in a row above 100°. I’m missing the cold humidity of Alaska while sitting in this row-crop hydrated greenhouse outside.

If anybody tells you that the heat is better than the cold, please just tell them they’re wrong.

I can throw on layers until I look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, but I can only take off so many layers before they tell me I can’t go near a school anymore. And I can’t exactly peel off my skin, try as I might.

The humidity and some timely rains, however, have really made the prairies pop in color. More photos to come from some of my recent adventures soon.

Go get lost.

See you there! Come join us!

Join the Grand Forks Prairie Partners to improve your public land grasslands on Turtle River WPA!

Woody encroachment from Russian Olive is a huge threat to the remnant grasslands present in the Kelly’s Slough system. Together, with the Grand Forks Prairie Partners, we hope to knock back the invasion and restore the grasslands to their fullest strength, providing habitat for grouse, songbirds, and other grassland wildlife!

Link 🔗 events.pheasantsforever.org/events/hands-on-habitat—kellys-slough-nwr-system—grand-forks-prairie-partners/9d4e318c-4790-44ad-ac35-d245e6683eed 🔗

We will meet at the Kelly’s Slough observation tower at 8 am and shuttle/carpool north to the access point on Turtle River WMA

Feel free to bring your own brush-clearing and tree-felling tools or safety glasses and gloves if you’d prefer!
Please wear boots/sturdy shoes and long pants. Longer sleeves are recommended to reduce scrapes and pokes from Russian Olive trees.


More information on RSVP Link
For any questions, please contact Seth Owens - [email protected]

Lunch and refreshments will be provided on site
If you have any allergy concerns, please contact Seth Owens - [email protected]

250 Years of our United States.

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country”

-President Theodore Roosevelt

Go get lost.

Yellow Rail - National Grasslands Week

Grasslands are so so much more than grass. They’re a diverse mosaic of microhabitats stitched together in gradients based by elevation, water, wind, and vegetation.

One of the more forgotten micro-biomes in the grassland is the sedge meadow, and there’s no better mascot for sedges than the Yellow Rail.

I’m one of the few people ever to photograph Yellow Rails in North Dakota. I don’t claim to be an expert at all, but my success with them one time has sent me down a rabbit hole. Specifically on their habitats.

Sedge meadows form in areas with seasonal flooding, usually on the margins of a larger wetland or up a drainage ravine. They’re one step in the gradient between upland to wetland.

Effectively, sedge meadows are grasslands with regular seasonal flooding that prohibits most perennial grasses. In the spring, depending on snowpack and precipitation, sedge meadows are fully flooded by a couple of inches of water, but by late summer they’re typically just slightly spongy areas with dark green rushes and sedges.

Sedge meadows form the in-between step between the well-recognized wetlands and the ever-thought-of uplands. They’re the middle child, and fall under that same curse of being forgotten. (Except my younger sister is way more popular than me)

This habitat is crucial for Yellow Rails, but also highly important for Nelson’s and LeConte’s Sparrows, Sedge Wren (fitting), and countless other habitat specialists. For ducks and gamebirds, these areas are phenomenal for brood rearing as they tend to be loaded with invertebrates that are crucial for growing chicks. We need these spaces more than anybody truly realizes.

Never forget the sedge meadows, and never forget the click-click, click-click, of a Yellow Rail.

Go get lost.