[mou] ALERT! ARCTIC LOON & Western Grebe

[Erik Bruhnke]

On my day off today, I visited Wisconsin Point, and first stopped at 'Gull's
Bluff' where I located a WESTERN GREBE and Red-throated Loon. Boy was I
excited about those beautiful birds! It gets even better though...

As soon as I viewed the Western Grebe, I called Robbye Johnson from
Superior. She came over and was able to see the Western Grebe. After
scanning around at the bluff for a good 1/2 hour or so, we decided to
birdwatch along the Wisconsin Point beach areas, down to the lighthouse. We
first stopped at my favorite spot (the first pullout on the right), where
jaegers seem to thrive at times... and was treated to one of the biggest
bird treats of my life... A close-swimming ARCTIC LOON was in front of us.
By close-swimming, I mean that the bird, when first spotted, was only 1/3 to
1/2 way out to the horizon, which is very close for a pelagic bird! The
Arctic Loon, as well as the Western Grebe, will of course be documented.

Robbye helped me with the identification with this Arctic Loon. Here's what
I observed in the field:
The overall profile of the bird didn't fit Red-throated Loon... Although
this loon had an upturned head, the top of this loon's head was too
stretched-out, and the neck and head were too cobra-like, to be a
Red-throated Loon. This bird gave us excellent views of it's side profile.
The Arctic Loon had extremely contrastive snow-white back-of-the-flanks
region, which met up with the rest of it's slate-colored back. The view of
the backmost white flanks were visible every time we saw the bird's side,
regardless of resurfacing from fishing, or just swimming around. The head on
this loon was slightly paler gray than the rest of it's body. The difference
in shade-of-grey was very clear. When Robbye and I first noticed this bird,
the most vivid marking (aside from the highly visible, bright white flanks),
was an all-white throat. The throat was as pure-white as snow, and the solid
white neck led up to the base of the bird's bill.  The throat contrasted
sharply with the back of the neck, without any noticable fading or blending
from front-to-back of the loon's neck.

Although rain is predicted for tonight and much of tomorrow, I will be going
out (regardless of weather) to try to find this bird again, and hopefully
photograph it!

Good birding,

Erik Bruhnke

Duluth, MN
birdfedr at gmail.com
www.pbase.com/birdfedr
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