Outdoor Ontario

Photography => Ontario Birds => Topic started by: Shortsighted on June 11, 2024, 08:01:58 AM

Title: Common Loon
Post by: Shortsighted on June 11, 2024, 08:01:58 AM
Two loons waddle into a saloon.  One of them is loonier than the other.  The chick behind the bar announces last call, so the loonier of the loons gives its characteristic croon, but slightly out-of-tune, so thinks the other loon.  This is ridiculous!  Everyone knows that a loon is never out-of-tune and always drinks alone.  There wasn't a saloon in sight but I saw a pair of loons the other day at about 7 o'clock in the morning.  No saloon would be open then anyway.  It was windy and it was Stygian, half past crepuscular, but I still noticed a loony presence.  I was at a sort of inlet at a lake about the size of a over-regulation sized football field, but flooded, and with reeds where the fans should be, but just as high, and there they were like mascots zig-zagging back and forth.  As I watched them I noticed that they gradually headed toward the mouth of the inlet, which was much narrower than the body of the inlet.  So, rule #17 (b) came into play.  I headed for the isthmus and waited for them to pass through it.  Then I was hit with a terrible thought.  What if they both dived while passing through the isthmus?  What would I do then?  Walk back to the car, get out of the wind and scream?  Fortunately I packed my nonchalance.  Besides, only one loon went under cover and the other cruised through like a corvette.  I was thinking of the movie Police Academy at the time and was disappointed that I couldn't summon a claxon alert but I'm not good at that sort of thing.  But despite the wind, the dismal light, the embankment that oozed of calamity, I still managed to get a photo.

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Outdoor-Ontario/Outdoor-Ontario/i-ccdRW4J/0/FMX3mp4PFf3RpdsRShBWvwjXxF7zCfBTKTQHpgnCb/M/Loon%20at%20isthmus%2Ccrop-M.png) (https://steinphotography.smugmug.com/Outdoor-Ontario/Outdoor-Ontario/i-ccdRW4J/A)
Common Loon   ( 420mm f5.6 )