4-19-09

You may remember that last year we had a problem with loons and grebes landing on the sewage settling pond near Crosby. We lost a lot of birds because of that. This year was a much better year, the lakes and rivers had thawed enough by the time the loons returned from the south that only a couple found their way to the bad water and only one of them had to be captured and brought to W&F for treatment. Today that recovered loon was transported to one of the local lakes and released back into the wild. Loons have a long, sharp beak that can do major damage to a careless handler so here's Becky helping Dr Deb remove it from the carrier.

After getting it out of the cage and walking down to the lake Dr Deb is going to hand it off to Ginny who will do the actual release.

(photo by Becky Miller)

Ginny has a good grasp on the big bird as Dr Deb hands it off to her.

You can see that this bird is anxious to be back in the water.

(photo by Becky Miller)

The dead sapling lying in the water doesn't provide much of an obstacle to a loon heading for open water.

With one last look behind it the loon heads out.

It's almost as if it's stretching its wings and saying, "Yippeee!, free again."

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