"Common Loons" (Gavia immerfour)

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It has been five days and no sign of the smaller Loon chick.  We are beginning to have doubts on it's survival.  We still hope that perhaps it is somewhere that we have simply overlooked.  Although not successful (at least for now) on finding the little one we have repeatedly found one or both adults feeding the larger chick.

As we watched both adults feeding the chick we were amazed how voracious the little one seemed to be with an insatiable appetite.  At one point we had a good chuckle as we noticed both adults with food coming from opposite sides of the chick.

At first the chick did not know which way to go but as it was eager to feed, it darted off towards one adult and then hurried over to the other.

Here I was able to get a couple of good close up shots as the baby loon came over close to me.  Having been in their presence for so long and being quite still I think it was overcoming it's fear of my being there, or else it was just too interested in feeding to care.

What I wanted to show was the almost total absence of down.  The chick's adult plumage is now visible.  The striking black and white look won't come until next spring.

As we say good-by  to this day we are still very concerned about the missing chick.  Tomorrow is another day and we will give it a try.

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