Good evening, I’m reaching out to all of you to share a relatively unknown great birding location in Washington County. Riverside Park in Saint Paul Park is a great area to bird for many reasons. In the past year the city officials and workers have been very gracious and have allowed me to help make this a “birder friendly” park in many ways such as, placing a fly through feeder near the trail entrance that is stocked year round, placing a Prothonotary Warbler bird house along the river, and they are currently working on placing at least two informational bird signs along the trails. They city has also been working on a prairie restoration project at this park for the past couple of years. Riverside Park is by no means the largest park in the county to bird but its location along the Mississippi River and old growth woods makes up for its lack of size. All the trails are groomed and most are quite wide except for the single track trail along the river which is narrow but still groomed and very “birdable”.
If you do venture to this park there is no parking lot, only street parking which at the end of 13th ave. (the nearest cross street is 13th ave. and 1st street). Google maps has this park located at 11th ave., however this is inaccurate so please disregard google! If you go there looking for Prothonotary Warblers, last year they were readily heard and often seen near the river bottoms. The Prothonotary bird house I placed along the river is not accessible by foot but can readily be seen from a high spot on the cliff along the single track trail. Also, if you eBird Riverside Park is a hotspot. Here’s my list from birding there today: 29 species total 6 Canada Goose 6 Mallard 1 Blue-winged Teal 5 Green-winged Teal 1Turkey Vulture 4 Bald Eagle 2 Belted Kingfisher 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker 4 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 3 Downy Woodpecker 2 Hairy Woodpecker 2 Norhern Flicker 2 Eastern Phoebe 2 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 12 Black-capped Chickadee 4 White-breasted Nuthatch 8 Brown Creeper 10 Golden-crowned Kinglet 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 Hermit Thrush 5 American Robin 7 Yellow-rumped Warbler 3 Fox Sparrow 12 Dark-eyed Junco Greg Jahner Saint Paul Park Washington County ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
