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Christmas bird counts will be occurring across northeastern Minnesota. Ely, Isabella, Hibbing, Cook, Virginia, Aurora, Sax-Zim, Carlton-Cloquet, Duluth and Northshore locations each have a day scheduled to count birds.
Ely, like all others, is conducted by volunteers in a circular area 15 miles in diameter over a 24-hour period. Count Day in Ely will be Saturday, December 21 and anyone/everyone is invited to participate as individuals, groups, or families. If you would like to participate or ask some questions to get more information, you should contact the Ely Field Naturalist, Bill Tet, (efnbill@ gmail.com). Whether you count or not, everyone will be invited to a 4-6 p.m. gathering to make an initial tally for the day, meet other counters, and tell stories of the day or other recent experiences.
Participants of any age, skill, time commitment, interest level and residency take part. Whatever your background, an opportunity almost always exists to learn or see something new. The center point of the Ely Count Circle is 47.8753 -91.8259 and within the circle’s 176.7 sq. miles people are always noticing birds. On this day, we draw on participant interest and willingness to seek out or take note of birds and report the species, number, location, number of observers and time spent.
Over the 15 years of reports, the Ely Christmas Bird Count has identified a total of 59 species with usually about 30 species on an average count. Feel free to call the Ely Field Naturalists at 218-235-8078 anytime with bird reports or questions. You can learn more about Christmas Bird Counts in Minnesota by visiting the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union website at www.moumn. org.
