On small quiet lakes surrounded by trees, we watched several Common Loons \u2013 one or two at a time \u2013 maybe the most characteristic bird of our visit to Maine. Its name seems to me unfortunate, because a \u201ccommon\u201d loon is one of the most fabled and mythical of birds \u2013 large, dark and exquisitely patterned, with a preference for wilderness and solitude, and an aura of mystery. It\u2019s called common because it lives further south than other loons, so is seen by more people.<\/p>\n
Late one morning on a warm, sunny day, one Common Loon floated low in the water, not far out from where we stood along the shore, though unfortunately we didn\u2019t have a camera at the time. For several minutes it stayed on the surface, not diving, so we could clearly see its ink-black head, red eye and long, pointed black bill; the black back checkered with white; on its throat, a thin crescent necklace of fine white stripes, and around its neck a wide white collar of stripes. After a few minutes, it began preening, raking its bill through feathers on its breast and under its wings. Four or five times, it rose up out of the water in a flurry of splashing, flapping wings, stretching up to show its pure-white breast and belly in a tall, extended posture that\u2019s apparently part of its bathing routine \u2013 sort of shaking off at the end. <\/p>\n
Though I listened and hoped, we never heard the call of a loon \u2013 an experience that continues to elude me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On small quiet lakes surrounded by trees, we watched several Common Loons \u2013 one or two at a time \u2013 maybe the most characteristic bird of our visit to Maine. Its name seems to me unfortunate, because a \u201ccommon\u201d loon is one of the most fabled and mythical of birds \u2013 large, dark and exquisitely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}