End of the first week of November and watching the full moon above the western horizon before sunrise. It looks large on this occasion during perigee – the time when it reaches the closest location to Earth this year.
Chapman Street in Ely provides a good view to the west with only intermittent clouds passing its face.
The sky brightens somewhat. Turn and look east for more clouds illuminated as a colorful dawn arrives.
The quiet of morning on what will soon become a busy street, allows for some reflections. It was only two days before while in a phone conversation that ravens could be observed from the library parking lot.
Rock pigeons, European starlings, and common ravens travel about the town that provides sources of food. In this instance, it was windy and a blue trash container had blown open.
Two ravens perched on the open rim while a few others were staged about on the alley, or adjoining rooftops.
The two ravens took turns entering trash containers, bringing out a strap for inspection, discarding it into the wind, and then returning for another. This went on for some time switching places and releasing trash.
Maybe their day will be rewarded elsewhere by someone putting out some food for them.
In our area, natural areas and outdoor experiences lead to ongoing observations and sharing. The places and players are well known and appreciated as the stories of people, places, events, grow into an appreciation of past, present and potential future components that shape what can be expected from this region.
A posting on the Ely Field Naturalist Google Group reports a flock of evening grosbeaks eating safflower seeds at a cabin birdfeeder for the first time in recent years. Two others report of first pine grosbeaks seen this fall. Stop and see a flock of about 30 redpolls feeding on seeds in a paper birch tree on Boundary Street in Ely.
Shagawa River and other water bodies receive migrating stopovers from day to day – great blue heron, belted kingfisher, small flocks or family groups of trumpeter swans, mallards.
Groups of hooded mergansers with some males already in breeding plumage for next spring.
Only a few dark-eyed juncos and a few snow buntings seen along roadsides. White-tailed deer – does, young of the year, occasional antlered buck – seem comfortable feeding and watching passing vehicles. Some crows are still here patrolling for food before moving on for winter and leaving the area with ravens as common year-round corvids. Red foxes hunting the same areas for scraps, road-kills, small mammals alive or thrown out from someone’s mouse traps.
After discussions with many people about the changing season and anticipation of freezing temperatures, snowfalls and freezing water, winter preparation leads to changes. Hunting seasons and ice fishing comes next along with setting up bird feeders and preparing for observations and reporting of winter birds and other wildlife.
There is no end to what might be experienced even when visiting the same place again - tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. Looking forward to the reports and stories that are yet to come.
Get Ready to Continue Making History
by Bill Tefft
Bird census history has been made every year since 1900. That year a Christmas time event was changed from a “Side Hunt” of recreational shooting of birds to what has become the longest bird research and monitoring study of “Christmas Bird Counts.”
Nearly 3,000 counts occur worldwide with about 2/3rds of them in the United States. 1905 was the first year in Minnesota with two count locations.
Since that year, Christmas Bird Counts are conducted uninterrupted in the state and have grown to include almost 70 census circles and involved more than 28,000 participants.
This year each of 13 Christmas Bird Counts will be scheduled in the Arrowhead Region of Minnesota on a day between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5 with other counts throughout the State. The Ely Christmas Bird Count will be held on Saturday, Dec. 27. Contact Bill Tefft at 218-235-8078 for more information.
