Arctic Loon

An Arctic Loon has been hanging out near Astoria this week, and I finally had a chance to chase him today. The most direct route, Hwy 30, was closed due to a massive mudslide, but the scenic route worked just as well. I am delighted to see this species in Oregon, as it saves me an expensive trip to Alaska, where Arctic Loons typically hang out. The grainy photos below were taken through my scope. My camera is not very compatible with my scope, but it works for ID purposes. Note the blocky head and white flanks that differentiate this species from the Pacific Loon.
arctic-loon-5.jpg
arctic-loon-4.jpg

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s