(June 22 - 25)
So one of our lake friends has a neighbour in Metro Vancouver who is a well known wildlife photog (Martin Palmer) who was interested in photographing Loons with chicks. I was introduced to him via email, and we struck up a conversation about wildlife photography, and life in general … and suffice to say that I ended up inviting him to spend a few days in our guest cabin to use as a base camp for Loon-watching. In particular, Martin was targeting photos of chicks riding on Mom’s back - a behaviour that only occurs for the first couple of weeks after hatching. I tried to keep watch so as to determine our best window of opportunity. In mid-June, with the help of some intel from our neighbours around the lake, I learned that the loons were hatching. I let Martin know that the clock was now ticking, so he completed his preparations and headed north to Green Lake.
Martin brought his own boat, which was well set up for photography, or fishing. His first two days here were cold and rainy, not conducive to nice pictures of birds on the water, so we searched the marshes for other opportunities in the meanwhile. Sitting still in a swamp under a cold downpour for an hour or 2 with the mosquitos is not the most fun, but we did have some success to show for our discomfort.
Click on the image to see the enlarged photo
When the weather broke in our favour, we were able to begin our loon watching expedition. Our routine was to to get out first thing in the morning, (5am!) and again in the late afternoon/evening. This gave us the nicest light, and dovetailed with feeding times for the chicks. Mom was typically left alone with the chicks for much of the time, but Dad showed up at intervals to catch and feed small fish to the chicks.
Below are a few of my results.
You can check out Martin’s pics on his website
Click on the image to see the enlarged photo
