Washington, DC Pacific Loon - June 1, 1998
David Bridge (David@simsc.si.edu)
Mon, 1 Jun 98 22:04:43
Pacific Loon seen again morning and evening on June 1, 1998,
in Washington, DC, Washington Channel.
>On 01 Jun 1998 17:51:45 -0400 Ohmono <dstrother@pop.dn.net> wrote:
>At 0730, from the little lot off Maine Avenue under the 14th Street
>bridge, I could see the loon even before getting
>out of the car. It was about 3/4 of the way across from the fish boats
>to the Hains Point seawall, ....
>Spent an hour with my binoculars observing the area between the
>railroad bridge and Hains Point at mid-day, when a number of the recent
>sightings have been reported; even sat and observed for infrequent
>surfacings as observed at mid-day when the fish wouldn't be at the
>surface. Didn't see it at all.
Craig Tumer, Norm Woodley and David Bridge found the Pacific Loon again
at 7:05pm and had it under observation at least until I left at 7:40pm.
It was in the Washington Channel, high upstream opposite Hogates
Restaurant. This location is north of the gate, where the road becomes
one way and single lane. The loon was on the Haines Point side of the
channel tonight, and only 10 to 60 feet away from us on the sea wall.
The bird was diving when first found, then preened actively for a period
of time, took a little nap, with his head on his back and the bill tucked
under his wing, then he started diving again.
The neck patch looked purple to us, not greenish, when we had the
sunlight on it. It was interesting to see the little white dots
that make up the chin strap, easy to see when it's looking right at you
from only 20 feet!
The three of us had spent about an hour searching for the loon, starting
at about parking area 4 and working all the way down to the point, also a
little bit on the Potomac River side. We then decided to start over
again at the head of the Washington Channel, and found the loon right
away. He was probably there all along, and we started too far down the
Channel.
When the loon is diving all the time, he is on the surface for a very
short period of time, so he could be hard to locate.
yours, David Bridge
Great Falls, VA
David@simsc.si.edu
ps: I think this might be the first June record of a Pacfic Loon in
Washington, DC :-)