Loon Chick's First Summer

A pair of Common loons nest on a small lake (in New England, we call them "ponds"). The parents await the arrival of their chick. I wait nearby in my kayak with my video camera. The chick arrives in early July, and from then to October we experience its first summer.

We'll watch the tiny loon take its first swim, leave the nest and venture out onto the pond. Both loon parents watch over, feed, and teach the chick what it will need to survive on its own by the fall. In its first 2 weeks, the chick often rides on a parent's back. We'll tour the pond with the chick - meeting frogs, cedar waxwings and woodpeckers, a kingfisher, wood ducks and even a bald eagle. We'll watch the young loon struggle to devour a spiny fish and encounter kayakers trying to capture its portrait. We'll see the pond the day after Hurricane Irene hit Vermont. When other adult loons visit, the chick hides. Not all visits are friendly. As the seasons change, we'll watch the chick mature from a fluffy ball of down into a sleek, feathered juvenile as large as its parents.

The story is told through images with a few subtitles and no narration to interrupt your own exploration of a loon chick's first summer accompanied by the haunting flute music of Werner John, classical guitar compositions by Antonio Calogero, and several others.