My first Black-throated Loon

I visited mothers’ place this Wednesday and I had brought the camera to see if I got any opportunity to take pictures of the Great Crested Grebe family. Mother told me she had seen one of them the last couple of days and that was exactly what we saw the other week. I hadn´t seen the family since before my trip to Hungary and I suspect that the family more or less have moved from the area.

Once down at the Mölnesjön we surveyed and I thought I discovered an adult Grebe on the other side of the lake. It was hard to be sure so we had to walk there to see what it could be.

There were many Ducks and Doves on this side of the lake and we also saw a Tufted Duck that was washing itself in the water so we stopped here. It was fun seeing it stretching out the wings and then kicking water onto the underside. I haven´t seen this behavior before but it makes sense when you think of it. How could they otherwise keep the underside of the wings clean?

Tufted Duck washing the wing, loon — Tufted Duck washing the wing 120704

We got a gathering of birds around us when we stood here and that is because people feed the birds during the year. We had Doves in the air and Ducks in the water around us and I had the luck to catch this Mallard Duck when it skidded across the water.

Mallard Duck landing on the water, loon — Mallard Duck landing on the water 120704

This is a photo I have been thinking of and that I have tried to capture but it has always been something wrong with the photos before but this one I like. The light is shining thru the feathers and you can see the movement of the Duck because the picture isn´t completely frozen. A good moment I think.

We stayed here for 15 minutes before we headed in the direction of the Grebe. When we came nearer I could say that it wasn´t a Grebe, it was actually a Black-throated Loon. A pleasant surprise I must say. I didn´t think that one could find a Loon here in a lake were many people bath. The only downside was that it was a bit far out so I had to put the 2.0x extender on the camera to get closer. This makes for softer pictures but that was the only option that I had.

It felt good to get these pictures because I have no Loon pictures before.

Mother then wanted to go up to a smaller lake, Idtjärn, and so we did. Here we found the young Tufted Duck again together with many young Mallard Ducks. I suppose they are more disturbed at the other lake so they move here when the sun is up and the people gather at Mölnesjön. The Tufted Duck was very bold and that is probably because it´s a young bird that haven´t got any bad interaction with people yet. So I could take some close-up photos of the bird before it tested its wings and flew off.