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Originally Posted by kjbathe
Then leave the dog at home and buy a zoom lens...
We were anchored a few weeks ago and a mother loon with chick came swimming by about 30 feet off our stern. I was surprised that they came so close! What a treat to see the little chick with a total body size about the same as the mother's head. The mother was diving to the bottom for food and would float right back up in front of the chick to feed it. We were concerned when we lost track of the chick after a rather large wake came in and the mother seemed to be scanning the shoreline in search of it. After such a treat we wondered if we had just seen a tragedy and maybe the baby loon had been washed up against the rocks. The mother called out twice, but stayed in place for about 30 minutes just scanning the shore. And we stayed quietly in the boat while she was there. Then we were relieved when we saw this tiny little head poke up from underneath the mother's wing. Neat stuff.
But the point is... Loons should always get the right of the way and courtesy of at least the 150' rule.
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They definitely should have left the loons alone, but I can't believe anyone is so stupid to bring a dog out with them to get photos. Talk about irritation. The loon would definitely think of the dog as a predator. Large wakes around the loons always make us nervous or when they go down we wonder how they know not to come up in front of a boat. Especially since we see many in the open bay by Blanchard Island where it tends to get choppy from boats moving fast between the two no wake zones, the PWC that come out of Raul's and tempt fate all the time as if no one else can use that part of the lake and the waterskiiers that use the open water.
We had the same experience as you, kjbathe, last year we were out in our canoe going around some islands and just enjoying the day when up popped a mom and baby loon. We decided we might be near their nesting place so we'd leave. LOL, we kept paddling faster as they kept coming closer. They followed our canoe for quite a distance sometimes making it within 15' of us. I kept telling my husband I didn't want to be called in for harrassement. It was almost the other way around. It seemed no matter what direction we headed the pair stuck with us.