Note: Afton State Park will be closed for deer hunting Monday Dec 9., 6 p.m. until Friday Dec 13, 8 a.m.
Astronomy:
Get up before sunrise on Friday the 6th and look for Jupiter below the Moon in the western sky. The Geminid meteor shower is on December 13th and 14th, and best viewing will be before the Moon rises around midnight. Look in the northeastern sky, and if you’re in a dark area you could see up to 75 shooting stars per hour! The Moon is full on Sunday the 15th. This full moon is called the COLD Moon, because it comes in the depths of winter.
Birds:
As long as there is open water on the St. Croix River, look for flocks of geese overhead in the morning and the late afternoon, and mallard ducks, mergansers, grebes, and other waterbirds on or near the water. In 2014 there were reports of over 500 mergansers on the St. Croix – that’s a lot of mergansers!!
Mammals:
People used to think that when coyotes moved into an area they would kill any resident foxes in order to reduce competition for food. But recent studies have shown that to be true in rural areas, but not in urban areas. That’s because urban areas generally have an overabundance of prey – large populations of rabbits, mice, and the like due in part to humans providing a landscape with lots of forage. Urban areas also have lots of scavenging opportunities provided by roadkill, human garbage, and compost piles, which add up to more than enough food for both coyotes and foxes. So with regard to coyotes and foxes, is Afton more rural or more urban? Which of the two species have YOU seen?
Trees:
The Eastern White Pine is a conifer that lives at Afton. Its needles are about three to five inches long and in bundles of five. The cones are four to eight inches long and slightly curved, with white at the tip of each scale. The bark of young trees is smooth, but that of older trees breaks into plates separated by furrows. Eastern White Pines grow to be 70 to 100 feet tall, and can live for 200 to 250 years! Eastern White Pines are the largest conifers in Minnesota, and a favorite place for bald eagles to build their nests.
Mountain Ash trees have striking orange-red berries in the fall, which provides food for birds and mammals, including deer and overwintering robins. They have compound leaves consisting of 11 to 17 leaflets, and light gray bark that may be scaly in older trees. Mountain Ash are sometimes shrub- like with multiple trunks, seldom growing higher than 30 feet.
Weather observations
Here are some weather observations from the Afton State Park area from past years.
| Friday, December 6 | 2013: cold and clear, high in single digits |
| Saturday, December 7 | 2020: murky day in the low 30s; 2015: high of 46° |
| Sunday, December 8 | 2010: single digit overnight with fog rising off open water |
| Monday, December 9 | 2023: rain changing to snow, maybe ½” accumulation; 2020: 52° and sunny; 2012: record snowfall of 10.5” |
| Tuesday, December 10 | 2021: record snowfall of 11.0”, eclipsing old record of 1.8” set in 2013 |
| Wednesday, December 11 | 2010: record snowfall of 16.3 inches |
| Thursday, December 12 | 2012: mild and sunny, with the high in the 40s |
| Friday, December 13 | 2014: high of 51° and foggy |
| Saturday, December 14 | 2010: single digits below zero |
| Sunday, December 15 | 2021: record high of 58°; much higher than the old record of 51° set in 2014; 2014: third consecutive day with highs above 50° |
| Monday, December 16 | 2000: record snowfall of 7.0 inches |
| Tuesday, December 17 | 2011: cloudy, high in 30s |
| Wednesday, December 18 | 2000: record snowfall of 6.5 inches |
| Thursday, December 19 | 1983: record low of 29 below zero |
Photo/Image credits:
All photos copyright Nina Manzi, except:
- Keith Henjum: Hooded Mergansers
- Dean Lokken: Rabbit
- Bill Marchel, MN Conservation Volunteer: Coyotes
- Gary Sater: Mallard Duck, Red-breasted Mergansers
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