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BIRDING
& JUNEBERRYS
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Bring your binoculars.
North Dakota is one of the best bird watching areas in the country.
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Our four trails each have a
different location as well as a variety of styles of Bluebird
houses. The four trails are identified by the color of the
number on the exterior of the birdhouse, ie; red trail boxes are
numbered with red paint, blue trail boxes with blue paint.
- bluebird boxes are for
observation, do not open the boxes as the mothers are nesting
and may abandon their nests if disturbed.
- Bluebird boxes are in pairs.
Normally Tree swallows will take up one house and Bluebirds will
occupy the other.
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Lund's Landing Bluebird Nesting Box
Trail Map |
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Learning based vacations Learn to bake a Juneberry Pie, locate and pick
berries and learn about the culture and history
surrounding Juneberries. Take your own Juneberry Pie home.
Package includes:
- One night lodging
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner, and 1 Juneberry pie per participant
- $100 per person based on minimum
of two people
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Lund's Landing Birding Package
Come enjoy a little slice of birding
paradise. The Lund's landing area offers a variety of habitats
and rare birds mostly due to it's position at the nexus of Four
Ecosystems - The western plains, central prairies, glacial lakes and
the Missouri River Badlands including Lake Sakakawea.
Package includes:
- Two nights lodging, two breakfast,
two lunches and two evening meals
- A Guide for the first 1/2 day
- $125 per person with a minimum of
two people
Day one will be spent on a guided bird
watching walk in the area. The second day is on your own to
further explore bird watching or just relaxing on your cabin deck or
the lodge deck and walkways.
A few of the birds within the Lund's
Landing Area are:
- Mountain and Eastern Bluebirds
- Baird's Sparrow
- Least Tern
- Piping Plover
- Lazuli Bunting
- Kingfisher
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- Sprague's Pipit
- Rock Wren
- Ferruginous Hawk
- Common Flicker
- Long billed Curlew
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Spring Brings Magic
The Juneberry is a native fruit bearing shrub
of the Northern Great Plains with its range extending northward
through the Canadian prairie provinces into the Southern Yukon and
Northwest Territories. This extremely adaptable plant will
grow under a wide range of climatic conditions.
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bush or small tree grows to a height of 18 feet at ideal sites and
bears masses of white flowers in early spring. the fruit is
borne in clusters of six to 12 and mature to a purple, red or
almost black color. Eaten fresh the fruits are tasty and may
also be used for wine, home canning, fresh, frozen, in pies, jams
and fruit rolls.
Spring brings magic to the Great
Plains. Each spring something magical happens in the heart
of northwest North Dakota. Between late March and June,
Bluebirds and Juneberrys return to the Northern Great Plains.
In some peoples minds Juneberrys and Bluebirds have a lot in
common. Some suggest that the Juneberry is mind altering.
It can cause hallucinations of muffins, pies, jams and cakes.
Juneberry ice cream can be mind altering in that once tasted can
transfer decision making from the brain to the taste buds.
Bluebird courtship activities begin
in April and May. The Mountain Bluebirds arrive a little
earlier than the Eastern Bluebird and prefer a pasture/fence post
environment as opposed to their cousins who's nesting habits may
include a closer proximity to humans and buildings. Jim and
Analene Torgerson who live in the country near Tioga, North Dakota
are a classic example of Juneberry and Bluebird addicts. For
30 years, the Torgersons have hiked along gullies, across streams,
around hill crests, thru cow pastures, over fences, and just about
anywhere a shrub grows in pursuit of elusive Juneberrys and Blue
birds. |
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Click here to view our mouth
watering menu at Lund's Landing. |
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There are people who say the large
pea-sized Juneberry growing on North Dakota's rolling prairies
should be North Dakota's State Fruit. One thing is
certain, the wild dark blue, sweet, juicy and succulent
Juneberry is special.
Explorers and fur trappers followed the Indians in harvesting
and eating wild Juneberries (Serviceberries) long before North
Dakota was a state. Meriwether Lewis wrote of his party
staving off starvation with Serviceberry pancakes.
Sounds like one of the better ways to survive any crises.
Juneberries favor the north
slopes of hillsides. The tall shrub or small tree, often
knee high to chest high, have dark blue berries, smooth
skinned, with a surface gray waxy bloom. The leaves are
oblong and serrated. You can start finding ripe berries
in early July. pick them fast as the July heat dries
them up fairly quickly and the birds have a sharp eye out for
them also.
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1st Saturday in June |
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Each
spring the Torgersons host a Bluebird and Juneberry festival
at Lund's Landing along the shore of Lake Sakakawea in
Northwest North Dakota. Designed for individuals and
families, the festival includes a workshop on how to attract
Bluebirds to your area, house design, trail
construction, predator control monitoring and a guided field
trip to observe Mountain and Eastern Bluebirds. The
workshop is an opportunity to enjoy & learn at the same
time.
 Hikers
and trekkers can walk from beaches to bluffs to open ranch
country along the miles of Bluebird trails which hug the
Missouri River. The areas' diverse geography offers a
variety of habitats for bird observations and study. A
hike thru the area will snare views of deer, badgers, eagles,
coyotes and red foxes.
Bluebirds are family oriented.
The courting male dotes on the female, waving his wings,
enticing her to select a nest site and offering her treats.
He courageously guards the box during nest construction.
He delivers food to the incubating female and participates
equally in feeding nestlings and fledglings. |
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WHAT TO
BRING
Bird-watching requires comfortable walking shoes,
comfortable outdoor clothing and a decent pair of
binoculars.
Bluebirds are considered
harbingers of spring. Although they may over-winter in
colder climates, they actively begin house hunting in
February and March, signaling better weather ahead. |
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Click here to view/print
our birding brochure in PDF format. (It takes a few minutes to
load on slower computers). |
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Lund's Landing Lodge is
the home
of the Annual Bluebird Festival
Bird
watchers can walk
our picturesque bluebird
trails,
and observe all the
different species of
songbirds in the area
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We Accept Visa and Master Card
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