It also turned out this was the last slow migration day as things really lit up the next 2 days with the last day of the month opening the flood gates. My goal for the Afton effort was to get a massive hike up and down the river ravines and trails to keep getting a stronger test in prep for my 10 day vacation that will have me follow the migration from the south all the way to the north shore where I plan on hitting up to 20 parks in that time span. I need to be in top condition for that time and it has been coming up quickly so my Afton day trips have all included multiple hikes down and back up from the river to keep pushing myself.
On this all day effort I started at roughly 5:15AM and went until I just plain old ran out of new species around 6PM that evening.
The morning was a bit chilly as I donned a thermal layer, jacket, hat and gloves. (35 degrees at start time) By the end of the day I was down to just a thermal layer and it was comfortable enough at 55 to 58 degrees. (It was nothing compared to 48 hours later as we peaked 83 degrees, meaning in April we hit a low of 5 and a high of 83. Even more insane in my town of Lake Elmo we have no official 70 degree days in April, but we have an 80 degree day, which I'm sure counts as bypassing Spring completely and moving directly into summer.)
Anyway, weather aside I planned out efforts to maximize visits to habitat within the park through the entire day and ensure I continued to loop past the river looking to observe any water migrants that might be circling through.
I actually hit the river bottoms in advance of sunrise by a bit and was barely able to see some ducks that started moving. My only Great-Blue Heron was sighted at this time along with Pied-billed Grebe. A few minutes later I was able to make out some Red-Breasted Merganser as they lifted off possibly heading north now that the ice had come off the river with warm temps and strong winds.
The water was calm as I started to make out a couple hundred American White Pelican floating along the river in a scattered array.
An American White Pelican coming in for a smooth landing on the St. Croix River.
I hiked the south river trail at this time and checked off several other waterfowl and timed my arrival back to the car for around 8AM looking to get on a potential Ruffed Grouse spot (found the year before) nice and early. Fortune smiled as I put myself on Trout Brook loop just after 8 and had a drumming grouse within 5 minutes of being on the trail. I also had a nice pair of calling (screaming) Broad-winged Hawks at this time as well. I did the entire Trout Brook loop trail hoping for Winter Wren and Eastern Towhee, but only the Towhee was cooperative.
I soon moved to 50th street entrance and decided the best approach would be to first walk 50th street to Quadrant and give myself a maximum edge habitat effort. This proved immediately viable as I found a cooperative pair of Horned Larks (They only seem to like the adjacent agriculture field and little inside the park itself.) as well as a single American Tree Sparrow a bit further down.
One of 2 Horned Larks doing a great job of blending into the dead tangle in this farm field.
Then while viewing the Tree Sparrow I had a nice find in a calling Tufted Titmouse. This bird has been found in the park multiple years in a row, but I've never had the fortune so it was great to finally hear one from the park itself.
In continued this hike to the farthest north and east prairie segments eventually dropping down a ravine trail to the rivers edge at the far north end. I hiked this back to the picnic area and worked the river over another time looking for any possible Gulls, Ducks, and Terns moving.
Again I headed back up the ravine trails picking a new one that would have me skirt the edge of what appeared to be a full hike in campground if the parking lot was any indication. I picked up some really nice views of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker working on a nest hole, even showing great looks at the belly.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker working on a nest hole.
The same bird as above showing the yellow belly as well as I've ever personally seen it on a free moving bird.
Back at the top I moved down some additional north prairie trails eventually finding my only Palm Warbler of the day bouncing between grassy perches. A short time later a Northern Harrier gave me excellent looks as well as it lifted overhead and moved to another prairie segment in the park.
Northern Harrier that provided me an outstanding photo op as it circled trying to gain elevation.
I was surprised at this time to also track down 3 Red-Breasted Nuthatch, but it would appear these birds are resident in the limited pine stands of the park. All in all I picked up 68 species by about noon that day and my wife was in route to bring some lunch and enjoy a bit of relaxing time at the park. I was able to show her the Pelican's down on the river as well as a few other birds moving about the area. After a Jersey Mike's sub and some chips and cookies I headed back down to the river and setup for another 30 or 45 minute look at the river. After ticking a couple more birds like Lesser and Greater Scaup (Greater added at home while reviewing pictures) I hiked up another ravine trail and did a mini loop in the north prairie areas that I hadn't been on yet. At this point I was approaching 12 or 13 miles of hiking already with 4 down and up efforts on the river bottoms, with 1 more guaranteed since I'd have to drop down and come back up to return to the parking lot. I was able to add Osprey on this final river attempt as well as Winter Wren on my way back down to the river as it foraged in the deadfall in a ravine.
My long distance Osprey pictures show a bird actively hunting/fishing over the St. Croix River later in the afternoon.
By the time I picked up the Osprey though I couldn't really even come up with another hike that was necessary at this point and I was about to hit 15 miles for the day. My longest hike of the year and I was definitely feeling the distance and especially elevation changes. 72 species was the total for the day and likely to get little larger unless I committed to staying after dark to try for American Woodcock and a couple owl species. That was still about 3 hours off though and I just couldn't see 3 hours of birding without a great prospect of adding many new day birds until that time.
I ended up getting a fun baseline for bird species in the pre-warbler migration blitz as I saw just 4 total warblers (3 Yellow-rumped, 1 Palm) and it will be interesting to see if I can find another day in early to mid May to do the same thing and see what kind of result I can come up with. the 15 miles of hiking was great and though I felt it for a couple days was something I needed to keep pushing for stronger endurance in advance of my big May effort coming up soon.
Bonus picture of a Chipping Sparrow seen in the park.
Field Sparrow really belting out a song.
American Kestrel looking for a meal early in the day. Just down the line 3 Swallow species didn't seem to mind sharing the space.
A Brown Thrasher near the visitor center was working his song rep hard as he went on for a couple minutes straight including a pretty good Easter Towhee mimic.
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