Tag Archives: Phenology

All Eyes on the Flyway!

March 9, 2020: These Mergansers are headed north to Canada! Common Mergansers are often the last waterfowl migrant to move south in the fall and the first to return north in the spring.

If you watch the Mississippi Flyway year-round, you know that it slows down in the winter. The icy cirrus clouds and blowing snow have their own austere beauty, but we don’t see much except an occasional coyote crossing the ice. Get ready for that to start changing as soon as next week! When should we expect ice-out? Ice-out is a process! We started to see thinning ice around February 27 of last year, although most of the river remained locked