The Valley of the loons

A swarm of mosquitoes stood guard over the entrance to the lake and beyond. To call it a swarm isn’t quite right though; more an impenetrable wall of vampires that swirled like so much smoke waiting to collect their tax in blood. But beyond the edge of the boreal forest, out on the emerald waters of the small lake, was a pair of loons with newly hatched chicks.

Until moving to Alaska, my experience photographing loons was confined to the nearshore ocean and estuaries of the southeast. Loons across much of eastern Canada, the Great Lakes Region, and New England migrate south for the winter to a decidedly saltier environment along the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas. Here, they ride the surf and swell for months on end leaving only in time to return back to their preferred lakes of the boreal forest just in time for break up of the ice.

But their offspring remain.

Much like ospreys, young loons will follow their parents south but not north again. Instead, these juvenile loons will remain in the coastal regions of the southeast until their second spring when they will return north to the region of their birth.

As such, having the opportunity to find and photograph nesting loons and those raising the next generation, quite literally upon their own backs, was something I have wanted to experience for a very long time. For nearly 20 years I told myself I would carve out time in the busy summer season to make my way out to Minnesota or Manitoba to photograph these most incredible boreal birds. Yet, year after year, I would defer.

But now I find myself living in a valley where the Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates there to be over 150 nesting pairs on the glacial lakes that sprawl out across the Mat-Su Valley. And so, with hatching season at hand, there was no way I was going to miss out on my first opportunity to find a pair of these birds with little fluff balls hitchhiking around on their backs. For a week straight now, I have dragged my kayak into the water and have spent hours each day floating around with this family. It’s been one of the most personally rewarding weeks I have experienced in a very long time.

I decided to shoot at a slightly higher angle with this composition because of the second adult in the background. If I had photographed this pair with my camera right at water level, the parent in the back would have blended in with the one in the front. But by photographing from about 2 feet above the water, I was able to find separation between these two and add depth and dimension to the composition.

Now the only challenge is I just have to cull through around 20,000 images of them!