A visit on Tuesday to the Muskie Rearing Ponds at the MNDNR Aquatic Management Area along the Burntside River found the Area Fisheries staff removing the last of the muskie fingerlings.
They were walking the pond with the last of the outflow to the rivers and collecting the remaining fish. This involved a little competition with a few gulls that wanted in on the fish gathering action.
The staff shared the next steps of implanting some tags that would be implanted in fish. The tags mark these fish and can be read during surveys or when anglers catch fish. That information provides outcomes from stocking and survival in Lake Vermilion any other stocked lake.
Throughout this week, more migrating birds are passing through the area. Trumpeter swan adults with 2025 offspring have been feeding on Robinson Lake and Shagawa River before continuing south.
A rare sighting in Ely of two immature dark form snow geese was watched as they grazed in the mowed areas along Miner’s Drive in Ely.
Small groups of Lapland longspurs, horned larks, kinglets, dark-eyed juncos, white-crowned sparrows, American robins, and other birds are reported feeding in open grassy areas and at birdfeeders.
The last two Ely Field Naturalists programs of October will be on the 23rd and 30th in Classroom NS 111 at 2:30 p.m.
Join us in preparing for more migrants, winter residents, and winter bird feeding.
Adult and immature migrating trumpeter swans.
American Pipit.
Dark form immature snow goose.
Reader for tagged muskies.
Example of a small muskie tag implant.
