Avian IOTW 02/27/2009 Mike Lentz

[Alfred Forns]

Congratulations Mike Lentz
Family Solitude

Hands down my favorite bird species to photograph. There is something about being on the water pre sunrise hearing the call of the Loon and the excitement I feel when we are able to "work with" the Minnesota's state bird. The lake I frequent has many nesting Loons and since its a lake that is fished and has boat traffic, they are very tolerant of me making images. Spring is around the corner and I started thinking about them today, so here is one I just processed from June 14th of last year. They were pretty comfortable with us as you can see.

P.S. Minnesota holds the largest concentration of Loons in the "continental" US.... at around 12,000... a population second only to Alaska overall. Wisconsin, I believe is under 4,000. In Michigan they are a threatened species and have fewer than 500 nesting pairs of Loons.

[denise ippolito]

Mike, Really nice image-Congratulations!!!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great mood! Congratulations, Mike!

[Phil Ertel]

Congratulations on your image being selected as IOTW! Well deserved!!!

[Steve Maxson]

Another cool image, Mike. Congratulations!

[Harold Davis]

congratulations, mike!!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Congrats Mike! Love the capture! :)

[Bill Sharkey]

Congrats Mike, great family shot of the Loon at low angle with a spectacular background.

Bill

[Gus Cobos]

Congratulations Mike...:cool:

[Ilija Dukovski]

Congratulations!


Ilija

[Grady Weed]

Hey Mike! I too can't wait for them to return! If I thought it would help, I would melt the ice for them. LOL. :p

Now to the image. Super. What else can you say. Print it and hang it.

[Roger Williams]

Congratulation, Mike. We're fortunate to have so many opportunities to see and photograph the state bird!

roger

[Doug Brown]

Great family interaction. Congrats Mike!

[Mike Lentz]

Congratulation, Mike. We're fortunate to have so many opportunities to see and photograph the state bird!

roger

TRUE!

Thanks for all the kind words guys! :)