Afton State Park phenology, January 17 to 30

Woodpeckers are starting seasonal drumming and some songbirds already thinking about spring.

By

Nina Manzi

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4 minute read

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Snowy steps at Afton State Park on the St. Croix River, Minnesota. (Tony Webster/Wikimedia)

Astronomy

From Friday, January 17th, through Sunday, January 19th, look for the planet Saturn near the much brighter planet Venus in the southwestern sky after sunset.

Birds

Late January is time to start hearing signs of spring from the world of birds. Several species of woodpeckers live at Afton year round, and at this time of year they drum on trees and fenceposts to announce their territories to other woodpeckers.

Black-capped Chickadees, Cardinals, and White-breasted Nuthatches are singing their spring songs. The Chickadee sings a two-toned song that sounds like “Fee-Bee”. Some people think this sounds like the Chickadee is saying “Spring Soon”. And Cardinals sing a whistling song that sounds like “what cheer cheer cheer”, and another that sounds like “birdy birdy birdy”. And you may also hear the White-breasted Nuthatch’s spring song, which sounds like “whi-whi-whi”.

Mammals

Have you ever been hiking in the woods and come across deer antlers on the ground? Each winter buck deer lose their antlers, and the fallen antlers are called “sheds”. Whitetail deer bucks grow new antlers every year. Deer and other members of the deer family, like moose and elk, are the only mammals that can regenerate a complex organ like antlers, which contain blood vessels and nerve cells. Just when deer will drop their antlers depends on lots of things, including weather. The reason antlers don’t pile up everywhere in the woods is that other animals eat them! Chipmunks, squirrels, mice, and even porcupines all eat shed antlers, which are an important source of calcium, phosphorous, and other minerals.

If temperatures are moderate, the first skunks will venture out from their winter quarters in late January. You might not see them, but you might smell them! Consider it a smell of spring to come. Trees: Eastern Redcedar is a conifer that looks quite a bit different from pines and spruces. The Redcedar has scaly needles, and its cones look like dusty blue berries! The bark is reddish-gray and often peels off the tree in long strips. There are plenty of Redcedars at Afton. Birds eat the cones and distribute the seeds in their droppings, and the trees often sprout in open areas like the prairies at Afton. You may see orange jelly-like blobs on Redcedar trees. That is cedar apple rust, a fungus that alternates between cedar trees and apple or quince trees. The cedars and apples have to grow relatively close to each other for the spores of the different stages of the fungus to move between the host trees.

Weather observations

Here are some weather observations from the Afton State Park area from past years.

Friday, January 172024: sunny and single digits; 2023: rain through day, changing to snow in the evening; 2015: a murky day with a high in the 20s
Saturday, January 182024: clouds and single digits; 2023: cloudy and in the 30s; 2014: record snowfall of 4.5”
Sunday, January 192022: single digits above zero; 2018: high in 40s
Monday, January 202022: single digits below zero in the morning; 2019: cold and calm, a few degrees below zero
Tuesday, January 212022: continued below zero in the morning; 2017: rain in the morning, foggy through day. 40s
Wednesday, January 222024: gray and in the 20s; 2021: one degree above in the morning, rising into the 20s with sunshine; 2019: light dusting of snow, low in the teens
Thursday, January 232022: Below zero again to start the day; 2021: 2 ½ inches of snow from mid-afternoon into the next morning; 2015: sunny with high in low 40s
Friday, January 242024: gray and drizzly all day, in the 30s; 2022: cold spell breaks with high in the 30s; 2019: light snow and blustery wind, with falling temperature from the teens to the single digits
Saturday, January 252024: foggy, high of 38° melts much of snow on ground; 2022: high in single digits; 2019: below zero in the morning
Sunday, January 262024: clouds through day, 30s; 2022: minus 13 to start the day; 2004: record snowfall of 7.4”
Monday, January 272023: an inch of snow overnight, and temperature in the 30s; 2017: high near 30°
Tuesday, January 282022: single digits in the morning; 2019: four inches of snow overnight, temperature in single digits
Wednesday, January 292024: sun early, then clouds, with a record high 50°; 2022: sunny and in the 20s; 2021: cloudy and clammy through day, in the 20s; 2019: clear skies, temperature falling from single digits below zero in the morning to 14 below by 6:00 pm
Thursday, January 302024: continued mild, high in the 40s; 2019: 20° below zero to start the day, rising to near zero; 2014: record snowfall of 6.4”

Photo/Image credits

All photos copyright Nina Manzi, except:

  • Stephen B. Antus Jr., MN Conservation Volunteer: Deer with one antler
  • Alan G. Nelson, Dembinksy Photo Associates, MN Conservation Volunteer: third Striped Skunk
  • Michael Furtman, MN Conservation Volunteer: Black-Capped Chickadee
  • Keith Henjum: Hairy Woodpecker
  • Dean Lokken: Northern Cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatch
  • Bill Marchel, MN Conservation Volunteer: Buck deer, Deer antler shed, first Striped Skunk
  • Gary Sater: Juvenile great-horned owl
  • Sparky Stensaas, MN Conservation Volunteer, second Striped Skunk
  • Stan Tekiela, MN Conservation Volunteer: Downy Woodpecker

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