Wood Duck

[Steve Maxson]

This Wood Duck was photographed from a blind on a small woodland pond in northern Minnesota. 7D, 500 f/4, 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 400. Cropped from a horizontal original. NR on background.

[Jim Fenton]

Love it.

I'd be tempted to clone out the little bit of submerged perch protruding on the lower right and give the head just the slightest bit more sharpening as the breast while maybe it is just the pattern, looks to be a bit sharper?

[stuart wanuck]

just beautiful!

[Ed Schneider]

Absolute stunner. Light angle is perfect, bringing all the iridescent color in the head plummage for us to view!

TFS:)

[Mike Lentz]

Lovely light and I always like when you get the species with their beak open and all those irredescent colors in the head.

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

Very nice woody. Nice light, well exposed, love the feet and excellent breast detail. Nice comp.

Nice head angle and open bill.

For me , it is right on the edge of being oversharpened, but that line is a very personal one, and I suspect the majority will like it.

Well done.

Have your local loons hatched chicks yet?

Cheers

Randy

[Steve Maxson]

Steve:

Have your local loons hatched chicks yet?

Cheers

Randy

Hi Randy. Thanks for the comments.

I haven't seen, or heard of, any loon chicks in this part of the state yet. The loons that use a nesting platform that I put out every year just started incubating last Thursday - though I know other loons were on nests earlier than that.

[Arthur Morris]

Loverly on all counts. Perfect head turn, beautiful detail on the breast, sweet view of the feet, nice light, and the purple cheek patch.

Yes to losing that little bit of vegetation if that works with your personal ethics.

[Randy Stout]

Hi Randy. Thanks for the comments.

I haven't seen, or heard of, any loon chicks in this part of the state yet. The loons that use a nesting platform that I put out every year just started incubating last Thursday - though I know other loons were on nests earlier than that.


Steve:

Since the incubation period is abt 27 days, give or take 1-2 days, looks like around June 20th or so. That is just a bit later than most of the Michigan loons hatch. Look forward to some images of them! What kind of success rate have you had off of your platform?

Cheers

Randy

[Troy Lim]

Love this shot. :) Colors and details are amazing.

[Steve Maxson]

Steve:

Since the incubation period is abt 27 days, give or take 1-2 days, looks like around June 20th or so. That is just a bit later than most of the Michigan loons hatch. Look forward to some images of them! What kind of success rate have you had off of your platform?

Cheers

Randy

My loon platform gets used every year and the birds are almost always are successful in hatching their eggs. Often the loons are literally following the boat when we put out the platform in the spring. I can't remember now how long we've been doing this, but it's probably 15 years or so. This year neither member of our regular pair returned (likely they did not survive the winter), but eventually a new pair showed up, eyed the platform for a couple weeks, and nested there. I agree that 20 June is a bit late. I would say that, on average, most loons in this area are hatching about the first week of June. (Perhaps more than you wanted to know.) :)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Excellent pose and love the open bill. Well done! These guys have such incredible colors.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Perfect comp and exposure. Very good image. You could lose the mentioned vegetation in LR, but I personally don't mind it. Just to make a "cleaner" lower edge I would get rid of the small black line found directly under the "Ma" letters of your signature and also the yellow just beyound that. SUbtle I know, but it did catch my eye fairly quick...

[Randy Stout]

Steve:

I really enjoy hearing the details of your loon adventures, so I appreciate your input. I made a mistake on the calculation, and suspect they will hatch around the 16th of June or so. Still a bit late. Perhaps because they were new to the site, they had to get comfortable with it before starting to incubate.

You mentioned that your previous pair didn't return. How long had they been using the site? Were you able to reliably identify them by some distinctive marking, or a band?

Thanks again for the loon info.

Cheers

Randy

[Steve Maxson]

Steve:

I really enjoy hearing the details of your loon adventures, so I appreciate your input. I made a mistake on the calculation, and suspect they will hatch around the 16th of June or so. Still a bit late. Perhaps because they were new to the site, they had to get comfortable with it before starting to incubate.

You mentioned that your previous pair didn't return. How long had they been using the site? Were you able to reliably identify them by some distinctive marking, or a band?

Thanks again for the loon info.

Cheers

Randy

I would agree that the new pair took a while to locate the vacant territory and also a while to get comfortable with the new site and the platform. This year I put a chicken wire "roof" over the platform because last year, on at least 2 occasions, a bald eagle landed directly on the nest. We thought it was eating the eggs, but a later inspection indicated this was not the case. Now, an eagle would have great difficulty getting at the nest.

But getting to your question - Loons are territorial during the breeding season and (potentially) long lived. We can't tell the loons apart as individuals. However, for many years, a pair of loons would arrive on our bay (a prime breeding location) as soon as the ice was melted in the bay and while the majority of the lake was still ice covered. This year, although loons were present on the lake at the usual time, no loons were using our bay for several weeks and then only sporadically. As this was such a different pattern, we concluded that our usual pair hadn't returned. As an aside - 4 years ago, during the last few days of incubation, a new male appeared, had a big fight with the resident male, and killed it with a stab into the abdomen. Turns out the dead loon had a leg band and had been banded as an adult on an adjacent lake 16 years earlier. Although the chicks hatched shortly thereafter, they did not survive. We are guessing that the new male took over this territory the following spring.