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Winter loon

johngregsite Posted on by

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As promised, here is the shot of the common loon cruising off the little beach earlier this month. It took some research in my bird books to ascertain that the common loon looks rather dull in the winter and this is likely one of them. Loons in salt water along the Connecticut coast is not something I have seen before; loons on Maine lakes is a favorite sight, and they are seen on the Maine seacoast as well.

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On a clear winter day in the Maine woods, the jets inbound from Europe sometimes are the only birds I can find.

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While on a patrol toward the far bog in Maine, we heard the loud tapping of a hairy woodpecker

Birds of MI [updated]

johngregsite Posted on by

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Our recent weekend on the CT coast allowed us to spot a variety of birdlife.

This is a horned grebe [left] found off the little beach during mid-day. It is a dull white and black creature during the winter but is allegedly spectacular during mating season (apparently it looks like it has horns, etc.). It disappears for minutes at a time under water, popping up yards away. I spotted him pretty close to the shore at first but, as I crept closer, it slowly kept moving further away. I was able to get a reasonable image with my 200mm with 2x tele-converter (a 400mm effective focal length) using a monopod to steady the shot. After-image processing assists greatly with adding clarity and exposure from the low light live environment. Technology makes me a pretty good foto-ografer.

The usual suspects like mallards, cormorants, gulls, cardinals, and bluejays were also found. I found a merganser off the little beach the day before this and will post his picture tomorrow. Behind the seagull was another bird which I will post tomorrow after I figure out if it was a cormorant or a loon.

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Noank from the Little Beach

The weather was fairly cold but the offshore wind was worst of all. The gull pictured here had to devote full attention to handling the stiff breeze as he repeatedly dropped a clam onto the rock below him. Here, he finally extracted some lunch and was coming in for a landing. There were mallards sleeping along the canals of the Poggy Bay marsh and over at the yacht club, as seen below.

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Mallards hanging around near the yacht club parking lot


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Unidentified subject seen on the way to the yacht club – has the look of a jay but did not when seen live

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A young female hooded merganser (likely) off the little beach