I tried for a good part of the summer to get this picture. Well, on and off. Not constantly. Others managed to get them together, but I was having an issue. They just wouldn’t cooperate.
I was trying to get two loons in the same shot. Not just any loons, but a mother and baby. And for a while, I had two to choose from. There were two baby loons that I spotted in fairly close proximity to each other. One was born a couple weeks after the other. Both did okay for a while. But one disappeared.
Life as a baby loon can’t be easy. You don’t have much time to learn what you need to know. How to dive, how to swim, how to feed yourself and the real important things like how to avoid not being eaten. That last one is the tough one.
You have to learn to look down and watch out for snapping turtles and big fish. You have to learn to look up and watch for birds of prey, like eagles. It’s tough being a young loon. Many don’t make it. But some do.
For a while, earlier in the summer, the mother kept her little one away from me. I tried to get a picture of the two of them, but they just wouldn’t line up the way I wanted them. And no matter how hard you try to get them to pose, loons don’t listen well.
Finally it happened. And they even gave me time to get ready. The young one surfaced right beside me. Not once, but twice. I’m not sure if he was curious or just off course, but it was interesting. is mother then gave him a gentle reminder to come back closer, which he did, and I got the chance for the group shot I was hoping for.
I was hoping for one with the baby a bit younger, but at least I got one.
