The loon chick has graduated from riding around on Mom's back to floating along in her wake.
He's still not quite up to speed on this 'diving thing', but he's figured out how to poke his head underwater to watch for fish -- and for Mom down there hunting. The loon's red eye helps it to see underwater, where the light levels are very low.
Jarvis assured us that he got a fabulous photograph of the pair of them, but he can't send it to us until he gets home -- and he lives in Hong Kong! -- so we're still waiting on that.
These were pictures Nancy took from the kayak, with a zoom lens, because it's a bad plan to get too close to the young loons. It puts a lot of stress on them, and then they require a lot more food (loons evidently eat when stressed...) which makes life harder for the parents. It's a good rule of thumb to stay 300' away, and if the parents start to vocalize when you are near, back away from them.
So beautiful!
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