Again to Lake Opeka & Axehead Lake Monday 12-29-25

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

With the snow this morning & the strong winds making for cold wind
chills all I did today was my usual 2 local lakes & of course checked
to see if the Common Loon was still at Axehead Lake, it was. Both
Opeka & Axehead are now completely ice free after the last few warm
days.

Lake Opeka (11:50 am-12:15 pm)

Canada Goose (19)
Mallard (2)
Goldeneye (14)
Herring Gull (14)
Crow (3, roadsides)

Axehead Lake (12:25-1:10 pm)

Couldn't find the Loon at 1st but finally spotted it hugging the far
west side of the lake to avoid the wind. The two pairs of ducks were
also out of the wind on the far west side.

COMMON LOON (1, continuing)
Goldeneye (1-PR)
Red Breasted Merganser (also 1-PR)
Coot (1, also continuing)
Herring Gull (1 fly-by)
Rock Pigeon (~30)
Crow (1 fly-by)
Robin (4)

Also checked Beck Lake & Big Bend Lake but both remain frozen solid
with no open water.

So only 10 species for the day although I didn't try very hard.
Bird-Of-The-Day to the continuing Common Loon & Runner-Up to the also
continuing Coot.

Al Stokie
Very local today on a very cold feeling day