Sibley State Park - Managing Expectations

Leading up to the weekend of the 27th of January I didn't really have locations nailed down for the mild weather that was being predicted. I wasn't feeling another 4+ hour one way drive to the far north nor was I thinking about an overnight for something like a mega-northshore run. After friend Josh Wallestad had noted to me around mid-week that snow was not present in his neck of the woods (Willmar) I decided I might like to hike a bit without a massive snow pack in place.

This led me to selecting Sibley State Park as well as Monson Lake and Glacial Lakes. This cluster of parks would give me a chance to explore the parks and effectively scout for future birding efforts. I knew the first 2 were directly in the deciduous forest biome and would look pretty similar to home parks in the cities so I would expect much in the way of birds.

Yet another in my long series of entrance sign selfies and attempting to fit into a shot of a large sign.

I arrived at Sibley just a bit after sunrise interested in being able to use the hiking club trail that would give me a good cross-section of the park as well as offer some elevation as it crests Mount Tom, Little Mount Tom, and Badger Hill on it's way down to Andrew Lake.

As I arrived in the parking lot I immediately heard a Pileated Woodpecker establishing forest dominance and quickly found an out of season pair of Eastern Bluebird atop a Cedar tree just off the trail center parking lot. It is always great to pick up a Bluebird in January as eBird had it flagged rare for the county.

One of two Eastern Bluebirds hanging out at the main parking area for the trail center. I love getting flagged birds on eBird, to me it means I'm testing seasonal limits for species and helping expand our understanding of bird habits.

Once on the trail I lamented not adding my Yak Trax as the dense woods kept full melt from occurring and the trails quickly became a patchwork of ice and crusty snow while moving up and down erosion control steps on the 3.3 mile long loop. The hike was really great though and I found several views worth the effort as the Mount Tom location featured a long standing brick structure as well as a viewing platform at the top.

The structure and viewing platform at the top of Mount Tom at Sibley State Park. A neat way to crest the high point in the park. It is worth noting that in the warm months a road and parking lot appear to bring you to the base of this hill so you could get this view with relatively minimal effort if needed.

The view down to lake Andrew that you can just barely see an edge of below the sky line. With my super zoom I could see a single ice shack on the lake and would eventually hike all the way down to the lake edge on the trail.

A hazy shot showing the morning light and distance you could see from the top of Mount Tom. I liked the layers of different wooded stands in this and I think a professional version of this shot with proper exposure likely could be pretty cool.

Few other birds presented themselves beyond the ubiquitous Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Downy/Hairy Woodpeckers. The hike showed me a number of interesting Cedar Tree groves that have potential for migrating or resident owls and I looked a few of them over while taking a break, but found no evidence of active roost sites.

Having managed my expectations of finding any rarities or unique birds I found the hike to be a great way to start the day and the Eastern Bluebirds ended up being more than enough to sustain birding interests. When I got back to the trailhead I peaked around the back of the trail center building and found 2 active feeders with some deer suet and black sunflower seeds present. The Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers were very happy so if any odd birds decided to overwinter this would be a good place to check for feeder visits.

The Great: I really enjoy long wooded hikes as they remind me most of growing up and hiking the Chippewa River in Wisconsin when I was young. This park has a lot of potential and appears to have a good amount of habitat allowing for a waterfowl stop in the early spring, and likely being a nice Warbler stop in spring/fall. The elevation changes in the hiking were very nice and the views from Mount Tom likely are a great show in Fall color change.

The Meh: Managing expectations did prove important as this time of year in a deciduous woodland at this latitude isn't likely to produce much of a serious list of birds. I ended with 9 species of birds and 3 of them were immediately out of the car in the lot so 6 total were seen or heard while hiking 3.5 miles in the park.

The Verdict: This park looks like an excellent spread of habitat and land for this park of the state and plan to come back even if it's to do a waterfowl check off of Andrew Lake. I'd like to come back for some hiking/birding in the spring/summer with Josh Wallestad also to get his thoughts on the park and favorite locations to visit. I know he has interest in trying to find Summer Tanager and Northern Saw-Whet Owl for his county list so those could be fun efforts to collaborate on in the future. This one is likely well worth the effort, but unless you just straight up love hiking probably not one to go out of way to visit in the winter.