A friend of mine, Katie and I headed out kayaking this week. We headed to a lake just outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to see if we could find a loon family that I have photographed many times. After searching in a few bays, we found what we were looking for. 

When we first saw the loons, we didn’t know if they had young. They were just swimming along the shore and we couldn’t see a baby. One wing was just a little higher than the other so we assumed that at least one little guy was in there. Katie started to video the loon and out comes the little head. It goes back in just as fast. 

It wasn’t long before the baby came out looking for breakfast. They look like such cute little round balls of fur. It was such a beautiful morning just to watch them swim around. Both adults started feeding various larvae to the chick. For the first five days the young will ride on the backs of the adults. The baby kept switching from napping on the back to feeding alongside the adult.

After being with the loons for about three hours they moved off into the bigger part of the lake. I couldn’t believe how great of a time we had with the loon family. I have had numerous encounters with loons over the years and this one was definitely in the top three.