I had an opportunity recently to photograph Common Loons in Northern Wisconsin thanks to my friend Mory. It appears that this year’s excessive rainfall has taken a toll on loon nests. Last year this same lake had six active nests while this year, we were only able to find two. (There might have been one more that we could not locate.) At least in one instance, an artificial nesting platform allowed the nest to float with fluctuating lake levels and two chicks successfully hatched.
As with most birds, every year has it’s struggles when it comes to chick rearing. Sometimes black flies can cause nest abandonment, sometimes it’s the weather and sometimes it’s both!
Without further ado, here are some of my favorite Common Loon images from the trip. (Stay tuned for the next blog entry for what else we found while photographing loons.)
All of the images on the page were taken with the Sony A9 with the Sony 100-400mm lens and a Sony 1.4x teleconverter.
⏤Alan Stankevitz