Axehead Lake, Independence Grove & St Mary's Seminary Thursday 1-1-26

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Happy New Year Everyone,

Started at Axehead Lake as I wanted to get the Common Loon as my 1st
year bird for 2026.
Did so & a Goldeneye was swimming with the Loon. The ice cover is
getting thicker & the Loon is almost out of open water but I don't
know what to do about it as you can't do a rescue when the Loon can
still dive as you can't catch it.

Independence Grove (8:45-9:10 am)

Just a short stop before I went to my Christmas Count area at St
Mary's Seminary which opens at 9 am. Here I saw :

Canada Goose (~500)
Mallard (2)
Goldeneye (10)
Hooded (5), Common (4) & Red Breasted (6) Mergansers

St Mary's Seminary (9:15-11:35 am) (With Tom K)

Canada Goose (5 fly-bys)
Herring Gull (1 fly-by)
BALD EAGLE (1-AD)
Red Tailed Hawk (1)
Red Bellied (3) & Downy (1) Woodpeckers
FLICKER (1)
Blue Jay (2-3)
W.B. Nuthatch (2)
R.B. Nuthatch (H-1?)
WINTER WREN (2. together)
Robin (10-12)
EASTERN BLUEBIRD (H-1)
CEDAR WAXWING (3-4)
YELLOW RUMPED MYRTLE WARBLER (1)
Cardinal (3)
Tree Sparrow (3)
FOX SPARROW (1)
Junco (8-10)
PINE SISKIN (10-12)

So 27 species at the 3 locations plus roadside Starlings for a day's
total of 28.
Bird-Of-The-Day will be the Pine Siskins & Runners-Up will be the
continuing Common Loon, the 2 Winter Wrens & the Yellow Rumped
Warbler.

Al Stokie
Mostly in Lake County today with one brief stop in Cook County