Beautiful shots, thanks for putting them up. As I suspected, it is hard to tell what is what with the throat lines. When birds move their feathers don't move the way it seems they should, and their appearance can change markedly.
It could just be the result of further molt, but the 15 April bird is missing some white feathers on the back that are there on the 28th. You can see that it has dark "blanks" in the rows of white squares, on both sides. The 28 April bird does not. Honestly, I find it hard to believe there would be 2 loons making the same mistake, but who knows. Kevin From: Melissa Groo [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 11:37 AM To: Kevin J. McGowan; [email protected]; CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: RE: [cayugabirds-l] Goetchius Wetland- Common Loon --looks like same loon as two weeks ago I'll defer to your judgement, Kevin. Unfortunately I only took a few other pics today but will post what I have along with some similar poses from a couple weeks back. Up now at http://tinyurl.com/3sttrou I think this was a case of wishful thinking --I was one of the group who tried to help that wayward one out of those waters a couple weeks ago, and I was so hoping we'd have another try with the same one! Melissa ________________________________ From: [email protected] To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:01:39 -0400 Subject: RE: [cayugabirds-l] Goetchius Wetland- Common Loon --looks like same loon as two weeks ago Nice photos. It's hard to be very confident in comparing the two photos because the birds are in just different enough postures to be confusing. But, looking at the spots and the extent of the two white lines under the chin, this does not look like the same bird to me. Melissa, do you have a few others you could post with a couple different angles? Kevin From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Melissa Groo Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 10:20 AM To: [email protected]; CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: RE: [cayugabirds-l] Goetchius Wetland- Common Loon --looks like same loon as two weeks ago I went to Goetchius at 9:30 and took some hurried shots in bad light, compared them to my shots of the loon a couple weeks ago (taken on April 15). It looks to me like it's the same loon, but would be interested to know what others think. I'm concluding this particularly from looking at the last few rows of the larger markings on the back. I've posted the pics for anyone who's interested, at http://tinyurl.com/3sttrou Melissa Groo ________________________________ Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:42:33 -0700 From: [email protected] Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Goetchius Wetland- Common Loon To: [email protected] I drove by Goetchius this morning just before 8am and found a COMMON LOON in the same spot as the the one from a week and a half ago. I only spent a few seconds watching it but it looked healthy. David McCartt -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
