Hi, as posted previously, Bill Shelmerdine and I shot down to the Oregon side of the Columbia River yesterday (11 Jan) to view the Arctic Loon that has been present there of late.
As Bill mentioned, this is a great opportunity to study this species up close.
Both previous Arctic Loons I've seen (Oregon 1998 and Washington 2000) have been rather far away, with the Washington bird easily over a mile distant!
This is not the case with this bird.
I've just added some photos from yesterday onto my website.
Though the lighting was quite challenging, I managed a few shots that I figure are somewhat worthwhile. I will probably delete some of the more inferior shots soon, but figured folks might like to see the bird first from all the different angles etc.
Also, there are some new pics in other galleries on the site (Raptors/Eagles, Passerines, Grouse and a Thurston County Rarities gallery in the Washington Rarities gallery; don't expect much from that one, mainly just "proof" shots).
Many, many, many more back logged pics are soon to follow. I'm gonna try to catch up soon.

See them all at:
http://www.pbase.com/slickslug/loons_and_grebes

Thanks,
Keith Brady
Olympia, WA
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