A few weeks ago, while out looking for wildlife to photograph, Astrid and I happened upon a juvenile loon that was floating around all by itself close to shore on a local lake.

This young loon was getting near to maturity. It was almost as large as an adult and had a full set of beautiful feathers of first year plumage.

We wondered if its parents had already left it on its own and headed south. The adults leave to go south well before the young of the year, and from that point on the young loons are on their own.

By that time, the young are flying and catching fish for themselves. They stay longer and migrate on their own, usually sometime in mid to late November. This youngster was floating around quite carefree, so we decided to investigate further and get some photographs.

Mom and Dad were constantly........

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