A Loon

I was taking my usual walk and saw two pelicans across the LeClaire channel from Smith's Island.  They were pretty far away, and I knew photos of them wouldn't do justice to their beauty.  Still, there was something in me - there always is, that wants to photograph every animal I see.  As I stood on the shore and watched them, I noticed something else moving in the water near them.  It was so low in the water and so far away that I could not tell what it was.  

The bird in question is 4 pelican body-lengths to the left of the left pelican, against the shore.

I knew it was not a Canada goose, because it was not big enough, and it wasn't brown.  I put the camera up to my eye and zoomed in as far as I could on it.  I could see that it was grey, and had a long bill, but everything else was pretty indistinct. 

Because the mind wants to match what you see with what you are already familiar with, the thought crossed my mind that maybe this was a heron, down in the water, floating.  I've never seen a heron do that before.  I don't even know if they would be able to fold up their long legs and do that.  But that is all I could come up with on the first pass.  At the same time, I knew it was not a heron.  Too many things didn't seem fit.  But what was it?

I snapped a several pictures, even as the bird seemed to appear and disappear.  I was so far away I couldn't tell if it was diving and reappearing, or if it was just so well camouflaged that it seemed to disappear against the opposite bank.  

I knew it was something I was completely unfamiliar with, and that was exciting.  A new bird!

Thanks to the power of the editing capabilities of Photo Gallery, I was able to zoom in on this bird on my computer at home, and get my first up close look at it.  

The first thought that came into my head was, "It looks like a loon."  How that could be, I didn't know, but that is the power of field guides.  

I had never seen a loon in the real life before - never expected to see one.  They just don't live around here.  But I have looked at dozens of field guides over the years.  I've done more than look.  I've poured over them, examining the picture carefully, absorbing details about beaks, body shape, color patterns, and postures.  I've read the descriptions relating typical behavior for the various species.  And somehow, as this bird came into focus, I just knew it was a loon.  

It didn't look like a loon - not the gorgeous black and white kind you see in slick magazines about the north woods, but that's where I learned something new.  The classic picture of a loon with it's black and white checkered back and red eyes show a loon in its mating plumage - stunningly beautiful.  This one, in our humble little LeClaire channel, was wearing it's non-breeding feathers, and so looked very plain.  It was just passing through, migrating back to it's home in the north.  I'm so glad I got to see it, and photograph it, and learn a little bit more about loons.  This is a real first in my book!