February: Winter-weary? Not us (yet)!
Frontenac State Park Association newsletter
February 2025 (Vol. 3, No. 2)
Comments, contributions, compliments, complaints? Newsletter editor Pamela Miller is at pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com.
February: Winter-weary? Not us (yet)!
Talk about your Dry January — was it ever! Our snow drought continues. Still, we haven’t given up pining for a good snowstorm — chances remain in February and March. And if one roars in, Frontenac State Park will be a cross-country ski and snowshoeing paradise. In the meantime, its hiking trails remain open, dry and alluring.
Lack of foliage and snow has one advantage — it allows us to see the bones of the landscape — raw geology. Gaze up for a while at one of our bare bluffs and you’ll see what we mean.
Snow or no, you’re all invited to the park for our annual CandleNight from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8. Traverse the trail along the bluff by the light of luminaria, with haunting night views of the Mississippi River below and the vault of stars above. Warm up at campfires at either end of the trail and enjoy light refreshments provided by Frontenac State Park Association volunteers by the wood stove in the main picnic shelter. And new this year: A nature art show! More on that in our “Notes from the field” column below.
In addition, this newsletter explores things that go bump in the night, as captured by trail cams, the ways of woodpeckers, and an update on our unofficial mascot, White Lightning!
But first, a nugget of good news — our park’s popularity continues to grow. According to manager Jake Gaster, 2024 had the highest overall attendance outside of the COVID years at 210,637 and the highest number of overnight visitors ever recorded at 19,495. And the final program-attendance tally for the year was 1,631 visitors at programs largely put on by volunteers. Said volunteers (that would be us, your Frontenac State Park Association) gave 382 hours to support programming activities.
From our calendar to yours
Thursday, Feb. 6, 3 to 4:30 p.m.: Quarterly FSPA meeting at the main picnic shelter. Interested in joining us? Come by to listen in and see what we’re up to. We’ll not only welcome you, we’ll regale you with warm greetings and fresh snacks.
Saturday, Feb. 8, 6 to 8 p.m.: CandleNight (see the info above, as well as our “Notes from the field” column below, for details).
Saturday, Feb. 22: Biochar/seed cleaning. What’s that, you ask? Learn more and sign up at https://www.givepulse.com/event/529518-2025.22.02-BiocharSeed-Cleaning-at-Frontenac-State-Park-Frontenac
Saturday, Feb. 22: Family snowshoe and sledding. Join Project Get Outdoors for sledding, snowshoeing and a campfire to celebrate winter.
Saturday, March 8: Nature Explorers/Nature in the Neighborhood: Learn how maple syrup is made. Free program for children ages 3-6. Maple syrup tapping demonstration. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Saturday, March 22, 10 a.m.: Bird walk, Sand Point Trail. Meet at the Sand Point Trail parking lot at 10 a.m. Walk through the riparian forest and then along the beach to Sand Point. Look for winter waterfowl as well as resident birds of the forest, gulls and raptors. The trail is well maintained and flat. The full loop is approximately 2 miles long, but you can head out whenever you wish. Free; no need to register. Bring binoculars! Questions? Email janetmalotky@gmail.com. This event is free.
Notes from the field: The art of citizen science
By Steve Dietz, Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
Anyone who regularly reads “Notes from the field” knows I’m an avid fan of iNaturalist, the citizen science platform for nature observations. Mostly this is because of how much I learn. The app will give me some options about what I’m seeing, and then I have to make a choice that is at least visually informed. Later, most images are reviewed by actual humans who have experience identifying the particular plant or animal and can agree with the initial ID, or correct it.
It’s an amazing way to get to know the flora and fauna around you, beyond which squirrel or dogwood you’re looking at. If you want to know more about how iNaturalist works, it recently hosted an illuminating webinar (with 5,000 attendees!); find the recording here.
And while the artistry of the images posted to iNaturalist is not its primary objective, recently I decided to review all 4,418 “research grade” observations (an ID agreed upon by at least two humans) made in Frontenac State Park. The images blew me away! Many are truly artful.
So much so that the Frontenac State Park Association created an exhibition of 100 images to display at our annual CandleNight event on Feb. 8 — one more reason to come to the park that night to walk the candlelit blufftop trail under a nearly full moon, enjoy free s’mores and hot chocolate, and chat with others who love the park as much as you do.
We’ll post the images on the Frontenac State Park iNaturalist blog page on Feb. 8, but here are a few preview highlights:
The earliest observation recorded on iNaturalist in the park is of a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell butterfly on Sept. 23, 1977. Interestingly, no other observations of it have been recorded since. “Kaufman’s Field Guide to Butterflies of North America” says it is “commonly seen in mountain meadows in summer, but also strays to parks, towns, etc.” This one must have strayed from nearby “Mount Frontenac” to the blufftop at the park. I’m definitely going to be on the hunt for one this summer.
I was also gobsmacked by some of the insects observed. A Northern Paper Wasp may be common, but as depicted by iNaturalist contributor earnoodles, it is uncommonly beautiful. And there are plenty of other insect images that border on the unbelievable as well as having fantastic names like Flat-headed Baldcypress Sapwood Beetle.
Fungi are fun, too. I am particularly enamored of Emily Taege’s Dead Man’s Fingers. You don’t need to tell me not to eat those! And there are plenty of other fungi images, of course, but in keeping with mycologists’ secret handshake society, there are no specific coordinates for any of the observations.
Robert B. Janssen’s “Birds of Minnesota State Parks” says Frontenac “has the highest species count of any state park in Minnesota,” and judging by iNaturalist, amazing photographers visit often to observe and record them. One of my favorite migrating warblers to spot, the Black-and-White Warbler, is also the subject of one of my favorite photos.
And nearly every image by nature photographer and FSPA member Earl Bye is sublime. He can even make a Common Grackle look magnificent. (Note: Earl will lead a bird photography workshop at the park at 5 p.m. on April 19. More details to come in a future newsletter, but pencil it in on your calendar.) There are also a couple of images by yours truly, like that of the Blue-winged Warbler.
The exhibition will present 100 selections from the almost 5,000 observations in Frontenac State Park posted to iNaturalist through the end of 2024, including birds, flora, insects, fungi, mammals, spiders, reptiles and more. Oh my! Come see them on Feb. 8 at CandleNight.
Even more exciting — this exhibition will be an annual event, and in 2026, we will present the most compelling images and fascinating observations in Frontenac State Park from 2025. Let the world know what you’ve seen in the park on iNaturalist and learn a fact or three in the process. It’s fun.
Bird note: Woodpeckers — weird and wonderful
By Janet Malotky, Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
In last month’s “Bird note,” I wrote about Red-headed Woodpeckers and hopeful signs that their presence in Frontenac State Park may be increasing. This made me realize that we need to know more about woodpeckers in general.
Of our winter bird companions in the park, woodpeckers may be the weirdest and most wonderful. I’ll get to a list of what makes them so in a bit, but first a few woodpecker facts:
The park hosts seven types of woodpeckers. Staying year round and breeding here are the Downy, the Hairy, the Red-bellied, the Red-headed and the Pileated, as well as the Northern Flicker. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are in the park only part of the year, arriving in spring to breed, and then flying south again in the fall.
We host the smallest North American woodpecker in the Downy and the largest in the Pileated. (The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is/was larger, but is likely extinct.)
Our woodpeckers are omnivores, meaning they eat a wide variety of foods — bugs, seeds, nuts, fruit, sap and flower nectar. As mentioned in last month’s “Bird note,” the Red-headed Woodpecker even eats … mice!
All of our woodpeckers are cavity nesters, meaning they nest in tree cavities that they have usually excavated themselves. They also hang out in tree cavities at night in winter. (They aren’t the only ones that nest in tree cavities. This is why it’s important to leave some dead trees standing.)
So what makes our woodpeckers so cool?
They are among the few types of birds that can climb trees. This is because they have feet with two strong toes facing forward and two facing backwards. Unlike nuthatches, they always climb with their heads oriented up the tree. Their weight hangs on the front toes and is supported on the back toes while they brace their weight against the tree using their stiff tails. They stay stuck even while slamming their heads over and over against the tree.
Woodpeckers drum objects with a force greater than that needed to cause concussion in humans. And they do it up to 20 times per second and 12,000 times per day! Why don’t they get brain injuries? Although there are popular beliefs about shock-absorbing bone density and muscle cushioning, recent evidence suggests otherwise. In an experiment measuring impacts in three different species of woodpeckers, scientists Sam Van Wassenbergh and Maja Mielke showed that woodpeckers’ smaller brain size, the short duration of impact, and the orientation of brain-in-skull results in their ability to withstand a much larger force than that which would result in injury to people. Why woodpeckers don’t get concussions | Physics Today | AIP Publishing.
Woodpeckers drum for three reasons: to advertise for a mate, to establish their territory, and to search for food. When advertising for a mate, they try to make as much noise as possible; hence their drumming on your metal chimney cap. I have witnessed a sapsucker drumming for hours on a street sign down by the Sand Point parking lot. That was definitely not about finding insects.
Woodpeckers have great hearing. They drum on trees, then listen for a hollow sound (as opposed to a solid sound) as a hint that insects might be present. They can also hear the insects moving around inside of trees and know right where to start drilling for them. They also use their bills to flake off scaly or peeling bark to find insects hiding underneath.
Sapsuckers drill holes for another purpose: They tap trees for sap. Once sap is oozing through the holes they’ve drilled, sapsuckers drink the sap. Then they snack on insects that are also attracted to the sap.
Woodpeckers use their tongues to lap up their food. Tongues are either barbed (Red-bellied and Piliated), sticky (Northern Flicker) or brush-tipped (Yellow-bellied Sapsucker), but all are very, very long. In fact, they are so long, the poor birds can’t fit their whole tongue in their mouths when retracted. Their tongues have to wrap all the way around their skull bones from the base of the lower bill to a bone at the base of the upper bill. If our tongues were proportionally similar, they would be two feet long. So weird! But also wonderful.
What walks in the night? Trail cams give us glimpses
By Pamela Miller, Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer
Backyard trail cameras offer us fascinating — and sometimes eerie— windows into nature at night. Here are three recent images of wildlife close to Frontenac State Park.
FSPA member Wally Siewert recently trained his trail cam on a deer gut pile on his property just yards from the park. Among the not-too-fussy diners that showed up was a fisher (Pekania pennanti), a member of the weasel family and a formidable predator. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources tells us this about fishers, also sometimes called fisher cats:
They eat squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, martens (their smaller cousins!), mice, even porcupines, and of course, carrion. Oddly enough, despite their name, they don’t eat fish. But they have no trouble zipping up trees to go after tree-dwelling mammals.
Males weigh up to 18 pounds. Females are much smaller, from 6 to 8 pounds.
Female fishers are impregnated in the spring — weirdly, just a few days after they’ve given birth — but the embryos don’t develop into fetuses for months, until about 8 weeks before birth. (This is common to members of the weasel family.) Litters of up to five kits are born in early spring, usually in a hollow log or rock den in a wooded area. The young stay with their mother until fall.
Fishers go out of their way to avoid humans, but if cornered, they can be aggressive, and if they become too accustomed to humans and their garbage, threatening. And we have heard of one fatally injuring a domestic cat that was out at night near Frontenac State Park. As with all wild animals, caution and respect are in order.
Joe Kirkwood, who lives just southwest of Frontenac State Park, was visited by a big ol’ bobcat (Lynx rufus) at least two nights around Christmas. Some of his neighbors have also captured images of the big cat (or possibly two of them) on their night cameras.
Things to know about the bobcat, courtesy of the DNR:
It’s the most common of three native wildcat species in Minnesota (the others are the Canada lynx and the cougar). Smaller than the others, the bobcat is easily recognizable by its short, curly tail. About 2,000 bobcats roam in Minnesota.
Adult males weigh about 30 pounds, while adult females weigh 20 to 25 pounds.
Female bobcats give birth to two to four kittens in spring or summer, often in dens concealed in brush piles or hollow logs.
Equipped with keen eyesight, tremendous speed and stealth, the bobcat stalks its prey, then springs and kills. Like the fisher, it feasts on squirrels, rabbits and mice, but also will kill larger prey such as fawns, and even wandering dogs and cats. Bobcats can even kill an adult deer by pouncing on it from a tree limb and biting its jugular vein. And it won’t hesitate to kill other predators it competes with for food, such as coyotes and fishers.
Bobcat attacks on humans are rare, but not unheard of. So stealthy are they, though, that you’re very unlikely to see one — unless it’s on your trail cam.
Here’s another image from Joe Kirkwood’s trail cam, captured on Christmas Eve. This hale and handsome buck survived the hunting season — last year’s, at least.
Have a trail cam near the park that has captured intriguing images? We’d love to publish some and write about the wildlife in them; email them to pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com.
White Lightning lives! Long may he run!
Speaking of creatures that live in the park, we’re delighted to report that the legendary White Lightning, the goat that escaped a paddock full of his buckthorn-eating peers in Frontenac State Park in November 2023, remains alive and well — and still on the lam in the park! (And how we all hope he will remain so; we worry a little that writing about him will set too many well-meaning admirers on his trail. If you see him, please don’t harass him, but report the sighting to park headquarters at 651-299-3000.)
On Jan. 6, interpretive naturalist and FSPA member Bruce Ause spotted White Lightning and wrote about that excellent adventure in his sweet nature blog, also taking the opportunity to explain the ecology of Frontenac State Park’s “goat prairie” habitats. Thanks, Bruce, for sharing this entertaining tale with our readers!
Poem of the month
“THE BIRD OF NIGHT”
By Randall Jarrell (American; 1914-1965)
A shadow is floating through the moonlight.
Its wings don’t make a sound.
Its claws are long, its beak is bright.
Its eyes try all the corners of the night.
It calls and calls: All the air swells and heaves
And washes up and down like water.
The ear that listens to the owl believes
In death. The bat beneath the eaves,
The mouse beside the stone are still as death.
The owl’s air washes them like water.
The owl goes back and forth inside the night,
And the night holds its breath.
Interested in joining the FSPA?
If you were a member in 2024, thank you! You allowed us to pursue our mission of supporting this treasured park with service days, new bird amenities, a new park sign, and many interpretive outings.
Membership is on an annual basis. If you have not yet renewed, please do so. If you’d like to join us, we’d be honored to have your support. Dues are $25 per year for an individual, $35 for dual/family membership. Here’s a link with signup information.
A reminder that joining us occasionally to help with volunteer efforts is awesome too, even if you’re not a member. The FSPA’s goals are to support the park and share our love of Frontenac State Park with as many people as possible.
To sign up to regularly receive this free, spam-free monthly newsletter, click on “Subscribe” below. Feel free to send questions or comments to your newsletter editor at pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com. Questions about the FSPA? You can reach hard-working FSPA chair Steve Dietz at stevedietz@duck.com.
Handy links for more information and education
Frontenac State Park
Frontenac State Park Association
If you take pictures in the park, tag us on Instagram
Frontenac State Park bird checklist
Frontenac State Park on iNaturalist
Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota
Website for our township, Florence Township
Minnesota Master Naturalist programs
Red Wing Environmental Learning Center
Lake City Environmental Learning Program on FB
Visit Lake City
Frontenac State Park staff
Jake Gaster, park manager; Amy Jay, assistant park manager; Amy Poss, lead field worker
Parting shots
Thank you, readers and park visitors!
This is Volume 3, No. 2 of the Frontenac State Park Association newsletter, which was launched in April 2023.
Here’s where to browse the full archives of this newsletter.