Flathead Audubon lost one of its pioneer founders in December, 2024, with the death of Elly Jones. Elly died in Columbia Falls but spent much of her life around Swan Lake. She was 93.
At a March, 2024, interview with the Flathead Audubon History Committee, Elly said she was born with “bird-itis.” She continued to maintain a daily bird list into her 90s. As much as any other person, she was responsible for the founding of the Flathead Audubon chapter in 1977.
“I blame it all on Elly Jones,” joked Dave Hudak, early leader of Flathead Audubon. “We were working together at a gardening soil factory near Ferndale. She said, ‘You should come to our new bird club.’
I said, ‘I don’t know anything about birds.’ She said, ‘I’ll take care of that part.’”
A short time later, Elly nominated Hudak as president of the fledgling organization. “With her big eyes and bright smile, there was no saying no,” he recalled.
Dan Sullivan, the first president of Flathead Audubon, recalls Elly as welcoming and inclusive to all, always grateful for others’ contributions.
Elly was born in 1931 in Minneapolis. Her family had a lake cabin in Wisconsin, where she watched loons and drew birds. She attended Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. As a young woman, she was an adventurous hiker.
“I loved being up high with the wildflowers and the views,” she recalled decades later. “And I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail before I got hitched.”
Her love of the outdoors led her to Montana with her husband Jefferson, where she worked as a health tech and later in the home-health field.
The couple first lived along Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula before they moved to Swan Lake in the late 1970s. They raised two sons and two daughters. Birds and bird conservation were defining facets of her life. She shared that love with others.
Elly was one of the first Montanans licensed to band hummingbirds, capturing them and outfitting their legs with tiny bands so they could be identified later on their migrations. She compiled many of the records of the first bird list for the Swan River National Wildlife Refuge, according to Robin Magaddino, who managed that refuge in the 1980s.
Robin recalled that she and Elly often ventured into the bear-habitat wetlands in early spring mornings to monitor songbirds. “She was a naturalist doing her thing,” Magaddino said, “but it had big implications. Elly was super-precise and dedicated.”
Elly is also remembered for her fondness for Common Loons, the state bird of her home state of Minnesota. She is listed in the Montana Rare Bird Records for her sighting of a Brambling, a Eurasian finch that shows up only accidentally in Montana; it showed up at her birdfeeder in 1979. With infectious enthusiasm, Elly shared her sightings at Audubon meetings and in the Pileated Post.
Under the guidance of ornithologists including Phil Wright, Dick Hutto and Marcy Bishop, Elly became a licensed bird bander. She maintained netting stations to obtain data about hummingbirds, warblers and other migrants. One of her hummingbirds was later recaptured 1200 miles away in Colorado. Another six-year-old specimen helped scientists understand just how long hummingbirds can live in the wild.
After moving to Columbia Falls, Elly was one of the first volunteer citizen scientists at Glacier National Park, monitoring Common Loons with friend Anne LaVoie.
“She was in her 70s and I could hardly keep up with her,” LaVoie recalled. “We explored all over the park, and there was not anything she could not hike. As high and as hard, she was capable. She is an amazing person and really smart.”
In March of 2024, Flathead Audubon interviewers Linda Winnie and Karen Nichols found Elly surrounded in bird artwork in the home she shared with her son Jeff. Assisted by a walker and pace-maker, she still took bird walks and thrilled to record each species she saw. Her list that spring day included Black-Capped Chickadees, American Robins, and a Saw-whet Owl.