I birded along the way as possible for roadside birds or small flood ponds picking up some random county ticks along the way. I can't really say I'm a serious county level birder, but while I'm out I may as well start coloring my state map in a bit so I can eventually say I've birded in every county in the state.
As I drove into New Ulm I realized the park was very tight to the city itself and with the Minnesota River started to take on the vibe of Fort Snelling State Park with a good amount of forest lowlands that likely flood from time to time.
I picked up my entrance sign picture and rolled into a park nearly devoid of humanity yet again.
These adventures have been so much fun. I can see it on my own face how they lift my spirit.
I'm starting to think some of these State Parks don't get much action save for the best weather conditions. Of course a generous amount of snow and ice was still present on the trails so I'm sure that played a role.
After finding some trail space I quickly heard a number of Yellow-Rumped Warblers chipping as they worked some trees and bushes adjacent to the river itself.
A river view showing high water moving and limited waterfowl potential.
The view down stream from the one above. Any time you have water you have potential and I'll consider myself fortunate to get the Titmouse on this day.
Only a short way down the trail I heard the 3 note call of a Tufted Titmouse several times in the forest. This was exciting of course as a new State Park year bird, but also I would later find out was a bird first eBird reported just a couple weeks ago for the first time. It appears that some number of Tufted Titmouse have setup shop around the park area and neighborhoods in New Ulm. Not knowing this in advance was as treat to pick out the call and then realize it was not a unique find, but a collaborating one.
I continued a reasonable hike as I dodged forest pools and remaining snow pack in the woods. A Belted Kingfisher seemed to be hunting a very narrow stream running along the woods as well as it rattled off a call or two. I thought about hiking some of the additional elevations in the park for the hiking club trail, but the conditions were a bit rough with plenty of mud and snow/ice remaining. I thought better of it and ended my hike after about 2 miles or so of distance. I was happy to see at least 13 Fox Sparrow working he leaf litter along the way.
The park certainly has the vibe of being able to produce good migrant birds with the river flyway running through it as well as the bonus of having some urban landscape nearby that might funnel birds into the park for feeding and natural space.
Never really seem to be out in the middle of nowhere in the park, but it appears to have it's charms and some decent habitat.
A history sign giving a taste of the park naming, etc...
With the constructed swim pond area and a couple camping spaces I would assume this park gets pretty busy with humans come summer and may be a bit of a boisterous vibe. I'll certainly see about stopping in some time in the future, but may not happen this year as the river is limited waterway.
I'm going to limit my review on the park beyond the above simply because I didn't really heavily explore the space as I might have in other cases. It is a reasonable space, but I didn't get any wow factor that would have me raving about it beyond the Tufted Titmouse find.
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