Bad photographer. Bad!

A few days ago the sun once again showed itself briefly late in the day, about 11pm or so. As I had seen what I thought was a Red-throated Loon on a nest on an island I decided to head out that way and try my luck. Sure enough, the loon was in the same spot, so I walked down towards her, meandering my way there, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.  The loon, from when I was still quite far off, laid her head along the ground, trying to disappear from view.  The effect actually works quite well, had I not known exactly where she was I would have found it hard to distinguish her from a rock.

She stayed in this position and I made my way as close as I thought I could get and not disturb her too much, or flush her from the nest. Close was a neighbouring island in the river and I laid down prone, and tried to disappear myself and wait for her to relax and raise her head. Now when I say "island" I mean a mound of sopping wet sphagnum moss, slightly above the level of the river. I laid there for an hour, and this next photo shows as high as she lifted her head during that time.

I could wait no longer, as I had promised to pick up Leah at midnight from Victor Bay, and I stood, snapping this picture from a little higher angle. I then shifted over a little bit to try and get a photo with her head a little less obscured by grass.

That shifting proved too much and she flushed from the nest. It was not what I had wanted to do, but I fired off a couple of frames when she moved. The results, while a less than stellar photo of a loon, is one of the most interesting water pictures I've ever taken.

As I walked the half kilometre or so back to the truck, I kept turning back but she had not returned to the nest yet, so I didn't linger when this female Lapland Longspur posed for me. I returned to the truck and hightailed out of there, knowing that I had gotten too close, and wasn't being an ethical photographer. But life is filled with mistakes, and the idea is to learn from them. As I drove away she was returning to her eggs.