ML634117013

Observation details

Continuing, amazing opportunity for a lifer I hadn't expected to get to see! Thanks to everyone who ided and updated us all! Their afternoon circuit is a big lap around the river with duck hollow at the center, occasionally coming fairly close. Glad they stuck around a little. Copy/paste of what I posted to the discord: Brutal sun from above made them tough to see so had to reduce shadows a bit. I have done a lot of comparison between images on macaulay and allaboutbirds, etc. Confident in agreement with others on this not being red-throated or common- the bill alone seems too thin for common, head not square enough. Bill too thick and not being upturned and too dark neck and face for red-throated. In some photos I can see the very faint barring coming in below the neck on the sides, but other loons have some of that. Even though this bird's chin strap is faint, it seems that the arctic would have much more white and no chin strap at all. Some pacifics on ebird also have very faint ones- especially immature birds- here are high res photos of young birds with barely any chinstrap: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/612155352 https://macaulaylibrary.org/photo/46248391 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/405963031