Mississippi River Recreation Area - Part 2

The continuation of our tour through Minneapolis in April.  You can read Mississippi River Recreation Area - Part 1 if you happened to miss the first installment of this exciting series. 

On Saturday we made our way to the actual Mississippi River Recreation Area, which is a huge series of parks along both sides of the river throughout the city.  We specifically wanted to find the couple of places where we I could find a Passport Stamp, because well that's the most important thing in the world!!

This particular wildlife station had an impressive collection of stuffed creatures on display and a pretty cool exhibit for kids.

It was a beautiful day though, and we wanted to stretch our legs on the walking path along the Mississippi River.  The river level was low and exposed sandy beaches in many spots. 

The website description for the Recreation Area said that there was a Great Blue Heron nesting site along the walking path.  But after a discussion with the Ranger on duty it turned out that high water had washed away the favorite nesting site a few years ago and the Great Blue Herons had relocated several miles South to a treed island in the middle of the river. 

The nesting site was located in a park in a slightly sketchy part of town, on the river and next to a power plant.  Not terribly scenic. 

All of those dark blotches in the trees are Great Blue Heron nests.  It was a pretty impressive number of nests, and there were several birds hovering around for most of the time we were there. 

Lots of Great Blue Herons. 

John seemed particularly nervous about the area.  Something about the sketchy neighborhood, remnants of campfires in the sand, and beer cans made him concerned.  But how often would we get to see a Great Blue Heron nesting site?  

That's the tour.  We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming of gardening, deaf dogs, and gluten free antics in our next post (maybe).