"When we see the first light of day today, we may also see the region’s first snow. It won’t stick to the Earth because it’s still too warm, but that early snow is a harbinger of what’s to come — shorter days, longer nights and a continuous downward trend in temperatures. That wolf called winter moves in stealth and determination to our door.

It’s coming.

As I drove toward home in western North Dakota on Friday, I slowed the car near White Shield, N.D., to watch flocks of birds darting into sunflower fields beside the highway. They were like swimming schools of fish, moving in unison without running into each other, then diving and swooping in the sky like they were one big body.

It was a perfect fall day and so warm that there were beads of sweat on my brow. The air was clean and fresh with a hint of burning wood and leaves. Pesky red-and-black boxelder bugs scurried over the siding of my sister’s big white house, looking for a warm spot to sunbathe. One flew up and landed on my T-shirt, then flew away again.

Several times during those two days, I looked up and saw those mile-high “Vs” as geese flew overhead, honking and pushing toward the south."

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: North Dakota landscape never fails to impress (The Grand Forks Herald 10/22)
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