Building up wing strength - six weeks to fledge

This is the same juvi common loon posted several days ago, this time exercising his wings, not his mouth!

loons fledge at between 11-12 weeks of age, and it is quite a process. Loons have the highest wing loading of any flying bird (wgt/wing area), so it isn't easy to fledge. Imagine a B-52 trying to take off from an uphill grass strip!

D4 600VR f/6.3 1/800s ISO 800 Pedestal mounted in the bottom of the Loonie Too.

Post: Crop for comp, selective sharpening, cleaned up a couple small spots in water.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

Very nice exposure of the whites here. Good wing flap and eye contact. Your the loon mister! The water beads on the chest and the drops behind the loon are a nice capture. To me the babies are just as cute as mom and dad. TFS Randy. We have got to get together here in Maine sometime or me to you to image loons.

All looks good to me ...nice work.

Beautifully done Randy. Because the small water splash is not sharp, I don't feel it adds much to the image, so I would crop from the left to get the bird out of center.

Great scene and setting you have here.

Excellent image, Randy Sir.
Wonderful colors. Great exposure and lights. Love the pose.details,low angle and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

That belly looks velvety smooth. I love the pose and the vertical reflection lines. I'm OK with the drops, but cropping as per Alan would give another version of a strong image.

Hi Randy, great low perspective, and love the soft light. Exposure and sharpness spot on, and I really like your BG. Well captured.

Very well done, Randy. Love the raised wings, nice feather details and sharpness. The light is very nice too.

Randy, very nice as always. Hard to critique these images, but I do agree on a crop from the left. Keep them coming. Gary.

Great light, Excellent pose.details,low angle and composition.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

I did think about cropping out the drops to move him more to the left, and appreciate your thoughts on the matter as well.

Cheers

Randy