Loon!

 I was going to put all the waterfowl in one post, but I can imagine looking at dubious bird photo after bird photo might be a bit daunting! So, this one is just loon. I'd not been up here long before I noticed these lovely predators paddling around again. I'm not sure how long they will stick around, the lake is clear and there appear to be fish of some sort in it.Loon prefer clear lakes with fish.  I'd love to see them raise babies, but this lake is often a decoy lake. As they fowl look similar, except in size, it is difficult to know which is which. At any rate, often only one will be here being territorial and the other is on a different lake raising kids. If you read loon websites, their lethal boss gang methods are rarely mentioned. I've seen them at the far end of the lake watching a young duckling blithely paddling around and suddenly the loon is gone and seconds later, so is the baby. They don't eat them, or so I'm told, but they will drown the ducks they sneak up under. I was in the kayak one evening watching a family and an adult duck jumped into the air, followed by the sharp beak of a loon! At the moment, there aren't any babies around. I'm not sure how many families will be here this summer. Mum used to put out cracked corn for the ducks, I'm not going to. I assume some will settle here, we'll just need to wait and see!

This photo made me laugh. Auto focus is so annoying sometimes, but every so often something fun shows up! 

 These last three were a couple of days later. There is only one loon hanging around now, I think the other is nesting. Although, according to loon information, BOTH parents take care of the nest. Maybe they are taking turns on our lake? The birds have been just offshore. I've never seen them this close to the bank before, but the water is a bit deeper than usual summers.They are such a fascinating bird!