Common Loon And One Of Its Chicks

I have always loved photographing Loons.

They are Gorgeous Birds.

I took this shot before 911.

Up to that time I used the spend a lot of time on our two combined military bases.

After 911 getting access was nearly impossible.

I shot 28 rolls of Velvia film the day I took this.

I was using my Canon 400mm f/2.8 lens and was shooting out of my raft.

The camera and lens were mounted on a Monopod,

that was resting in my sneaker, to keep it from

punching a hole in the bottom of the raft.

Actually, works great.

Also, that day, I sunburned the top of my head so bad,

I had big water filled blisters where I parted my hair.

I realized that, when I was going home and my head started to itch.

I scratched my head and my fingers came away wet.

I had popped some of the blisters.

Should have worn a hat.

I haven't seen any nesting loons in a number of years now. Used to be a nesting pair on nearly every lake when I first came to Alaska in 1976.

But, things change and usually not for the better,

as far as it goes with our birds and animals.

Scanned from an Archived Slide.

Done