Kent's Viewfinder: August 2014

I recently made my annual trip to Maine. The place I stay is on a pond, which I would call a lake, but they call it a pond there. Each year, I look for the resident loons, either from the shore or while I'm out in the kayak.

Photographing from a kayak has some interesting problems. The boat never tracks straight. If there's any chop at all, it's really hard to hold the camera steady, especially with a long lens. If the birds move to the right or left of me, I can only turn my torso so far to track them before the boat lists uncomfortably and I fear falling in with my expensive camera. When I set the paddle down to use the camera, I fear I'll lose the paddle (although this year I used a paddle leash). And I fear getting my camera wet from paddle splash. I use a Black Rapid strap and I'm confident I won't drop the camera, but I have to take care to put it in just the right spot in my lap so it's out of the way of the paddle. So, there are some challenges.

This year it seems there were two breeding pairs, each with a single juvenile. One morning I saw five adults in the middle of the lake. I was able to observe some behaviors that I hadn't seen before, probably because in previous years the juveniles were already quite large by the time I arrived in August. Here's a shot of a juvenile riding on its parent's back. I've seen plenty of pictures of this behavior, but this was the first time I've seen it myself. Occasionally the parent would "stand up" in the water to stretch its wings, causing the juvenile to tumble into the water.

Juvenile Riding on Parent

I also noticed that when the parent "stood up" to stretch its wings or rolled over to shake a webbed foot in the air, the juvenile would mimic its parent.

Loon Stretches its Wings

Juvenile Shows its Foot

One of the two juveniles this year was incredibly small, leading me to believe it hatched late. At various times I observed its parents diving (which is nothing special), then surfacing with a small fish (they usually eat while submerged), which they took to their offspring.

Junior Opens Wide

Well, not "they". Both parents would dive. But only one would feed junior. When the other parent surfaced with a small fish (usually with some plant material stuck in its mouth too), it would give the fish to the parent who primarily stayed with the juvenile. Then that parent would feed junior. During one morning when a family chose to hunt close to the place I was staying, I was able to put a chair on the dock and just sit and watch, occasionally getting some photos. I observed the juvenile diving sometimes. Once when both parents were under, junior dove too. Both parents surfaced, found junior missing, and then one let out the typical loon wail, calling junior. After a few more seconds junior popped up and eagerly went to get more to eat from its parent.

Here's a photo of the larger juvenile.