Oct 3, 2024
As our water taxi motored into the harbor, a gray-headed water
bird floated around the corner of a barnacle-crusted rock. A
Pacific Loon!
Having spotted one new species of loon, my interest in seeing the
others grew. The afternoon that I arrived at the Toolik Field
Station to prepare for doing caribou research, I took a short walk
around the base to get a feel for the area. The tremolo of a loon
flying overhead sent a thrill down my spine, and I watched the
large bird land on the far side of Toolik Lake. Were they a Common
Loon? They sounded similar. But the logo for Toolik features a
Yellow-billed Loon, and I was sure the scientists would have chosen
them deliberately. Now that I’d seen the most similar loon to the
ones I’d left back home, my last goal was to see the most different
loon.