North Point Marina, Illinois Beach South & North Units & Waukegan Harbor Wed 2-4-26

[Al Stokie]

Hello Bird People,

Targets for today were White Winged Scoter, Long Tailed Duck & Red
Throated Loon & although I eventually saw then all it took a while.
Today's group consisted of Bob Erickson, Andy Stewart & Eric Johnson
at the 1st 2 places.

North Point Marina (7:25-8:30 am)

Saw some distant small Loons flying by but too far to I.D. for sure.
Canada Goose (~200)
Mallard (52)
Greater Scaup (3)
Redhead (~40, but only a few were in Illinois, the rest were in the
small Wisconsin harbor)
WHITE WINGED SCOTER (1-F)
Bufflehead (2-M)
Goldeneye (22)
Red Breasted Merganser (1-F & a few more flying by)
Herring Gull (only 4 with many more on the ice in the lake)
Red Tailed Hawk (1 fly-by)
Tree Sparrow (12) & House Sparrow (4)

Illinois Beach South Unit Office Building Deck (8:45-9:30 am)

RED THROATED LOON (5, & the others saw more flying by in the distance)
Goldeneye (2-M & 2-F)
LONG TAILED DUCK (2-F)
Herring Gull (4)

Illinois Beach North (9:40-10: 05 am)

Drove around for about a half hour but only saw 2 Tree Sparrows

Waukegan Harbor (11-11:30 am)

Mallard (3), Goldeneye (6) & Red Breasted Merganser (2)
Ring Billed (32) & Herring (6) Gulls

So only 15 species at the 4 locations plus 3 more roadside additions
for a total of 18 species.
Bird-Of-The-Day to the White Winged Scoter which gave good, close looks.
Runners-Up to the flying Red Throated Loons & the 2 female Long Tailed Ducks.

Al Stokie
In Lake County today