Winter Feeders and Food for Birds events

By mid-January Christmas Bird Counts are completed and the tallies from the Arrowhead Region can be tracked down for review and discussion. Moving forward this winter, bird feeding strategies are evaluated to see which feeders and foods are working for the kinds of birds that are present this winter. Starting this week and over the next month, learning, sharing, designing and observing winter bird feeding will reach its cold weather peak of activity.

 

Thursday, January 21 – Strive for Bird Feeding Success

The January Ely Field Naturalists program at 7:00 in Classroom CL 104 at Vermilion Community College will review the Christmas Bird Count Results from Northeastern Minnesota, discuss the birds visiting bird feeders, look at feeder design and food options, and prepare participants for the other upcoming bird events during the Ely Winter Festival.

 

February 1-12 – Bird Feeder Design Contest

Draw on resourcefulness, creativity and know-how to design and enter a bird feeder in the first Dorothy Molter Bird Feeder Design contest. Go to the Dorothy Molter Museum website at rootbeerlady.com to learn more about the guidelines and rules and then put together a masterpiece to enter during the week of February 1-5.

 

February 10 – Enjoying Winter’s Birds the Ely Area

Join Bill Tefft on a trip through a slide presentation of birds found in the Ely Area and learn more about where they are located and what they are doing. Wednesday, February 10 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. at the Ely Folk School.

 

February 10 – Build and Decorate a Bird Feeder

Take the materials provided that can be recycled and upcycle them into a useable bird feeder of your own creation. This after school program from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m at the Ely Folk School and conducted by the Ely Field Naturalists. There is $5 fee per feeder for materials payable at the event.

 

February 13 – Winter Festival Birding Field Trip

If you would like to see some of the birds that spend the winter in Ely and learn about some of the birds you don’t see, then join experienced Ely Field Naturalists birders, Norma Malinowski and Gloria Gervais.

Participants will meet at Winter Festival Headquarters (The Front Porch) at 343 E. Sheridan Street at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 13 to organize a carpool to some local birding spots. Binoculars will be provided for those who don’t have their own. Be dressed for the outdoor conditions and for walking on road or trail surfaces. The field trip number will be limited to 15 people. Anyone interested should call (Two one eight-235-8078) or email (normarj at frontiernet dot net) to reserve a place or see if any spots are still available.

Merry Christmas Birdcounting!

Tomorrow Night, Friday, December 19 – International Wolf Center Lecture Series Presentation by Bill Tefft will review the importance of carcasses and the guild of species that utilize them.  The scientific study during a Christmas Bird Count in northern Minnesota reveals the behavior of a number of local species actively exploiting the resources provided by a carcass.  Learn about scientific protocols, the value of the data, and the species records from local Christmas Bird Counts.  Then take part in one of the local Christmas Bird Counts.

6:30 p.m.  $5.00 fee.

Saturday, December 20 – We will be Ely Christmas Bird Counting

 

Check out the Google group for more Christmas Bird Counting opportunities!

New feeding Station at the Dorothy Molter Museum Community Birdfeeding Area

Just over one week ago the post was in the ground and the hub attached to the “wheel” was under construction. The goal was to finish building and get the new bird feeding station for the Dorothy Molter Museum up and in operation by the Ely Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, December 20.

By Wednesday, December 17, the goal was completed with feeders moved, filled and alive with birds. Dorothy Molter’s love of birds continues to come back to life through the work and contributions to the Museum’s Bird Feeding Area.

Last year feeders were donated by Anne Steward and Lisa Pekuri, and along with more donations, funds from a grant purchased bird seed. This year two deer ribcages were donated by Zups of Babbitt and a chicken farm donated fat from processed chickens. In addition to various mammals, birds have been active at the feeders throughout the year: winter, spring, summer, autumn and now winter again.

Over the past year, the Museum has been exploring some ways to create a bird feeding stationthat would support bird watching for community members and visitors to Ely. An example of a structure on a post with many feeders hanging was found in a winter birding area near Meadowlands. Two concepts were shared with Jeff Larson and Dana Hein for their design and construction skills and the project was off and running in October.

Over the past month and one half, local lumber, local welding, local hardware, local volunteers and more local contributions flowed into the creation of a Made in Ely version of a bird feeding station. Red cedar lumber, white cedar trunks with branches and steel pipe, hub and outer band were the primary components.

Birds will be viewed for the rest of the winter and there is room for more feeders. Now it will be interesting to see how the experiment works.

The station’s top (hexagonal wheel) is designed to be rotated so that feeders can be filled from the tailgate of a truck backed up to the surrounding fence. To date all of the birdfeeders are tubefeeders, suet blocks or seed containers. The Museum is interested in getting or creating some hanging platform feeders with covers or seed containers to protect the seed.

Currently, black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, blue jays, common crows, northern ravens and common redpolls are the most regular visitors. Stop by and have a look!

Dorothy Molter Museum Attracts Birds and Lynx

This winter the Dorothy Molter Museum has been taking the lead in our community by establishing a public bird feeding area. The area they are developing helps fulfill the museum’s mission of presenting Dorothy’s appreciation of birds and other aspects of nature.
Thanks go out to Anne Swenson and Lisa Pekuri for donation of feeders that were not in use and could be put back into productive use at the museum. With the vision of Mary Parks and the oversight of Sarah Guy-Levar and the DMM Board, the feeders have been diligently filled and improved on by Sherry Abst. Raw suet, suet cakes, broken sunflower seeds and peanut butter have kept the black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, blue jays, American goldfinches and recently pine siskins in regular attendance. Who knows what spring will bring? Most of the feeders are well designed to limit whitetail deer and red squirrel presence.
Another note of news is an exhibit that Mary Parks prepared for the Quilter’s Window Display in the Ely Public Library lobby. The exhibit contains a quilt of Dorothy’s with a bird theme along with a variety of books and quotes that illustrate Dorothy’s bird-watching activities. This is the last week that the exhibit will be available, so take a look before it goes away.
There has been sightings and video of the Canada lynx that has been moving about the edges of the city. Last week it stopped at the Dorothy Molter Museum and checked out the suet feed or maybe it was the birds that were visiting the feeder. Whatever its interest, Mary Parks had an exciting end to her work day as she took these pictures.