[mou] Snow stops migration in Ely

[Bill Tefft]

The storm of the past two days seems to have stopped the migrants passing through and there are birds just about everywhere today.

The birds that are abundant (in the hundreds or thousands) are:
dark-eyed juncos
American tree sparrows
white-throated sparrows
rusty blackbirds
American robins
fox sparrows

The birds that are being seen out in the open in smaller numbers are:

veerys
Lapland longspurs
snow buntings
Lincoln sparrows
song sparrows
killdeer
Wilson's snipe
greater yellowlegs
common grackles

There have been a lot of waterfowl concentrated in open water for the past couple of weeks with
large numbers of ring-necked ducks, buffleheads, hooded mergansers and common loons.  I don't remember looking at a stretch of river and seeing 20 loons like there has been recently.

I have yet to see any white-crowned sparrows or Harris sparrows in this movement of birds.  This really makes you appreciate the number of migrating birds that pass through an area relatively unnoticed most of the time.





Bill Tefft
Parks and Recreation Instructor
Vermilion Community College
1900 E. Camp Street
Ely, MN  55731
Office Phone:  218-235-2197
Fax: 218-365-7218