Today while hiking Afton State Park to count for the Afton CBC, Susan Plankis and I saw a Townsend's solitaire.
Two hikers first spotted a bird they were unfamiliar with, perched very close to the trail. We heard its warbling song and as we approached identified it as a townsend's solitaire. We watched it for over 15 minutes, relocating it a second time, and watched it from as close as 25 feet as it sang and ate cedar and buckthorn berries. With the beautiful fresh snow cover and clear blue skies it was quite a New Year's Day event for us! Unfortunately the trails in Afton SP are not named nor marked with numbers to easily describe the location. North of the backpack camping area are two shelters about 0.7 miles apart. To the west of the easternmost shelter is a 0.2 mile trail bend. The bird was along the N-S stretch of this bend, where pine and cedar trees line the west side of the trail. Diana Doyle Hennepin County
