FLIGHT LINES

Flight Lines: Resisting the rigors of winter; behaviors meant to survive cold

Last weekend, I stumbled upon a curious scene. Sitting on the snow under a spruce tree was a blue jay. It looked cold but comfortable...and it was dead.

By Keith Corliss , February 02, 2011

Flight Lines: Hillsboro woman has a passion for birds

Rosalie Anderson isn’t one to let setbacks quash her desire for more in life.

By Keith Corliss , January 19, 2011

Flight Lines: Rodents beware, rough-legged hawks in area

Mid-winter on the northern Great Plains is a time of trial and forbearance for its scattered inhabitants, both human and animal. Frequent storms, such as last weekend’s whoppers, continually test our collective backbones.

By Keith Corliss , January 05, 2011

Flight Lines: Local bird watchers raise bar with highest-ever count

Now what, Disneyland? It took until the 74th year of the Fargo-Moorhead Christmas Bird Count (CBC), but area observers finally topped the 50-species mark last Saturday.

By Keith Corliss , December 22, 2010

Flight Lines: Ten species to watch for in this decade

As a young child, one of the stranger memories I can recall is seeing a publication in December of every year featuring the predictions of Jeane Dixon, a prominent psychic of the day.

By Keith Corliss , December 08, 2010

Flight Lines: Towhee tests Cass County winter with brief visit

Imagine you are a bird. You’ve spent the spring and summer somewhere up north, raising young while safely avoiding predators and other dangers, but generally enjoying the warmth and nutritional bounty served up by the long, lazy days of sun.

By Keith Corliss , November 24, 2010

Flight Lines: Speed and camouflage, hallmarks of the jack

“These ‘silverbacks’ are the largest jackrabbits in the country,” Carson said as we headed west out of Tucson and into mesquite desert habitat.

By Keith Corliss , November 10, 2010

Flight Lines: Learning the value of patience and going slow

Tempo and pacing, two words we run across in just about everything we do.

By Keith Corliss , October 27, 2010

Variations abound for this red-tailed hawk

The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is about as common an airborne predator as there is.

By Keith Corliss , October 13, 2010

Flight Lines: Purple finch, the one ‘supposed’ to be here

February, 1980, marked a moment of some significance among the state’s birders. This was a milestone. In Bismarck, North Dakota, the first official sighting of a house finch was recorded. Two months later Cass County got one too.

By Keith Corliss , September 29, 2010

Flight Lines: Fishermen and woodpeckers share secret

A recent stroll at an out-of-state park helped me realize just how fast the summer is coming to an end.

By Keith Corliss , September 15, 2010

Flight Lines: Night stalker among the natural beauties

It began with a fellow named Joe who wondered, along with some of his neighbors in Petersburg, N. D., whether the owls they were seeing every night in town were something special.

By Keith Corliss , September 01, 2010

Flight Lines: In pursuit of passion, the chase isn’t always easy

If Macklin Smith made the pilgrimage to the Black Hills of South Dakota you know it’s something special. Really special.

By Keith Corliss , August 18, 2010

Flight Lines: Tree swallows are a nice second choice

Matt is a friend who lives on a nearby rural farmstead. He’s not a farmer, mind you, but he and his wife prefer the quieter atmosphere of country living. It also allows her to keep her horses at home instead of boarding them somewhere else.

By Keith Corliss , August 04, 2010

Flight Lines: By nature or man, a wing must produce lift

You’d think by now this whole flying thing would be figured out. It’s not. Credit to the first great thinkers to ponder the possibility of manned flight goes to the venerable names we all learned, the Aristotles, the Galileos, the da Vincis, and others. That’s only because they preserved their thoughts with written words and drawings. I’m confident the first humans to walk the earth also wondered and wished. With creatures all around them plying the air with moving wings, how could they not? Insects and bats were doing it. And birds, those magical feathered beasts, were doing it too.

By Keith Corliss , July 21, 2010