It was fun this morning watching a Merlin (a Boreal forest falcon) work at catching breakfast (other birds). Merlins are fast and quite acrobatic. The falcon was at Slag Point which already has migrating shorebirds plus summer grassland bird residents. I suspect this Merlin nested in the nearby forest.
In addition, if you love wildflowers, a walk out to the point takes you past thousands and thousands of flowers in blossom including black-eyed susans and native purple bee balm. Learn more about Slag Point in my website’s section on Minnesota Birding Locations (includes GPS Google Maps coordinates/links)
Slag Point was part of the U.S. Steel Plant EPA Site cleanup. While it has taken a quarter of a century, the river is now pristine and this great birding walk (Slag Point Trail) was opened one year ago (June 2024). One accesses Slag Point via the small parking area in Duluth’s Morgan Park neighborhood (Google Maps GPS link).
Over the past few days I have repeatedly visited Slag Point (Morgan Park Mud Flats) with the intent of showing off this beautiful walk. The round trip hike out to the actual point is 1.56 miles which assumes you also take the side loop. I have personally found the birding best out near the point and on the side loop. While the area has only been open one year, the work to reclaim the site was most excellent and the birds are already voting an enthusiastic “bravo, bravo!”. Quite frankly it is during the spring and fall migrations that this area shines, and late July means Arctic shorebirds are already flying south for the winter. I hope you enjoy this introduction to Slag Point, but more importantly get out there and enjoy it yourself.
And two still images representative of the videos … taken by my DJI NEO drone
Near the parking area / starting point for a walk
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Looking towards the point just after sunrise on a “wildfire smoky day”
Did I mention birds?! I had a great time with Arctic Shorebirds both mornings. Each day these birds were our near the point eating bugs off log booms. The logs were only a few yards offshore.
My other post for today review and gave the GPS location for this relatively new, great Duluth birding spot, Slag Point (Morgan Park Mud Flats). In that post I mentioned that Slag Point is a great birding location for migrating Arctic Shorebirds. As evidenced … (images taken a few days ago)
Dunlin
Dunlin and Sanderling
Semi-Palmated Plover
One item worth noting is at Slag Point it will be unusual if you have more than a couple of people also walking the trail. This compares to Park Point where people and dogs (I love dogs) often scare the birds. This location equals peace and serenity, and very often superior birding … specially during migration.
