Four Images of the 14 week old Loon. This will be my last series posting of this Loon family, not because they have left, but because I've put away my boat. It has been both fun and educational for me to have had the opportunity to follow this Loon family from the start of nesting (early May) through the hatching of the two chicks, the loss of one of the chicks and the progression of the other until today. It has also been a great pleasure to share this progression with all of my Pbase friends as well as with others who frequent my site.

Today I saw two firsts. It was the first time in three years of following young loons that I have actually seen the young one bring up fish and eat it. I actually saw it bring up and eat three today. It was also the first time that the young Loon fell asleep on me, not far from my boat, seemingly wishing me to go away. Mom was some distance away, alternately swimming and diving.

I never actually saw the young Loon fly, but then the adults don't fly very much either. They usually dive to get away from danger. I did witness one attempt of the young Loon at running and flapping over the water towards Mom/Dad, some 30 meters away. It is my understanding that the young can usually fly some 10 to 12 weeks from hatching.

In the above image, the 14 week old young Loon is still playfully nipping away at Mom. Mom is now also starting to display some whitening at the base of her bill, similar to that observed for Dad several weeks ago.


Junior is about to swallow one of its catches.


One final wing spread as if waving "GOOD-BYE".


"GOOD-NIGHT"