Going For The Big One

by Sandra Huston

Title

Going For The Big One

Artist

Sandra Huston

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Going For The Big One” is an original wildlife photograph by Sandra Huston.

While kayaking in late fall on Tacoma Lakes in Maine I captured this close up of an adult common loon in the process of feeding its juvenile 12 week old chick a very large fish it had caught. The fish was so large that it had to repeatedly stun it by clamping its bill and shaking the fish before the loon passed it to its chick. This is number one of a three part series showing an adult preparing a large fish to feed its juvenile chick.

Honored to be featured in the following Fine Art America and Pixels.com groups:
* Images That Excite You on 10/17/19
* Birds In Focus on 10/17/19
* Just Perfect on 10/17/19
* FAA Portraits - Birds on 10/18/19
* New England Photographs on 10/18/19
* Wild Birds Of The World on 10/22/19
* 10 Plus on 10/24/19
* Whats New on 10/25/19
* Maine Fine Art Photography on 10/27/19
* Your Very Best Photography on 11/19/19
* Hodge Podge on 12/5/19

Loon facts: Common loons are larger than the other loon species. Adults are 28 to 35 inches (70 to 90 centimeters) long with a wingspan of 60 inches (152 cm). Their weight ranges from 3.5 to 17.6 lbs. (1.6 to 8 kilograms). Common loons breed in forested lakes and large ponds found in Greenland, Iceland and northern North America. Wikipedia
The first few weeks of a loon chick’s life is very precarious, the loon parents have to be on the constant look out for eagles and osprey flying overhead also snapping turtles and large mouth bass below the water that prey on new loon chicks. That is why you will sometimes see day old chicks on their parents back or under their wings as that is the warmest and safest place to be until they are 2 weeks old. It’s amazing that it only takes few days and baby chicks can swim and dive on their own. Both loon parents will feed there chick small fish, crayfish and leeches until it can catch its own meal at about 8 weeks old. Loon chicks begin to learn how to fly when they are about 10 to 12 weeks old. They will now be almost as large as the parents but will have grayish brown plumage. The loon chicks will not gain the beautiful black and white breeding plumage until they reach 3 to 4 years old. Once the ice begins to freeze the loons will migrate and winter along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, Iceland and Europe. The adults will not return to fresh water until spring when they are ready to breed once again in the spring.

The keywords associated with this three part series include: common loon, (Gavia immer) loon, close up, water, waterfowl, original, photography, wildlife, wild, nature, animals, lake, wildlife decor, Litchfield, Maine, Tacoma Lakes, Sandra Huston, Pixels.com.

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October 16th, 2019

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