Description
A wild ride with some very hard to get super shy birds, The Red-throated loon.
I refer to these loons being elegant, Soft and elusive. My time with them was special knowing not many people have photos of these birds because of how difficult they are to get.
The bugs were relentless, Eaten alive with bug suits on.
While I love photographing Common Loons in breeding plumage and social media is plugged solid with common loons and babies.
This season I decided pushed myself for something more difficult, More elusive. I was on the hunt for Red throated loons.
Each day they would venture a little further from the nest then return. Finally to the point where they were comfortable swimming in open water and how to hide from unwanted birds of prey the parents led them across the pond.
Theyre now gone, Kinda sad to see them go. I spent so much time with them but over the last three months I took well over 11,000 images and two terabytes of video.
My effort and determination rewarded me with 3 nesting Red-throated loons, Two nests on one pond, and one on another pond.
Nests were basically boat access only
In between guiding and all nighters for Noctilucent clouds I spent the last three months photographing these Loons.
I was lucky enough to even watch them hatch one early morning.
Red-throated loons have very different behaviours compared to Common loons, Such as
First is these loons are extremely shy birds, They don't want anything to do with you. Because they're nesting they are a little more tolerable. Outside of nesting, They take off immediately.
Respectable space was given to them but at times they would swim right beside my boat.
Red throated loons don't hunt the ponds they nest on, They fly off the pond to the ocean to hunt for food like Sand Lance, Shiners, Herring and other small fish and fly the food back to the pond.
The adults alternate babysitting duties and hunting duties, When one loon returns the other one takes off.
When the babies hatch, They stay on the nest for 3-5 days, They only leave the nest to feed then back onto the nest.
They don't ride on the back of the adults like Common Loons.
Yes, I've spent endless hours watching, Learning and documenting these loons and for a very hard bird to get Im super happy for my efforts.
Thanks for reading
Taken By
Anthony Bucci
Taken On
July 18, 2025
Tagged
loons
birds
nature
wildlife
nikon
animal
bird
anseriformes
waterfowl
goose
beak
ducks
liquid
water_bird
duck
Assignments
Wildlife
Active Outdoors
