When I last posted about the great blue herons renesting on the Mississippi River, I said that the rookery was not easily viewable from shore. Tony Hertzel from the Minnesota Ornithologists Union sent a not mentioning Marshall Terrace Park. I had driven by there and also viewed it from the river and it didn't look viewable. However, I drove back to the park and explored it. There's a paved trail behind the baseball diamond that takes you to a stairway down to the river and gives you an eye level view of one of the islands on the rookery:
I didn't have my scope with me and took this with my point and shoot camera. If you look in the bare branches, you can see one of the nests at the top. This island also has a little colony of nesting spotted sandpipers, so if you go watch for these little shorebirds bobbing their butts along the shore of the island.
Maria Baca from the Star Tribune wrote a really nice follow up about the rookery and there's even a photo of a heron on a nest!
One note about this park. They have some badass ground hogs:
I found a family of them living in a hole dug out of asphalt...I would give them a wide berth if you encounter them on the trail.