The Beauty of Nature - as demonstrated by a common loon

[Randy Stout]

This adult common loon was imaged last summer.  Sometimes for me, an image just works out right.  This is basically straight out of the camera with a slight crop to level it.  Shallow DOF from f/4.5 with a 600mm lens gives the subject isolation, and the water color is very pleasing to my eyes.

D500  600VR f/4.5  1/1600s, ISO 800

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[David H. Hartman]

Are there any uncommon loon (besides myself)? It's a better looking bird than I am! 

Dave Hartman

[Anthony]

A beautiful bird, pity it has such a terrible name.

[Jakov Minić]

Lovely image, agree on the blue colors, very pleasing.

[brent_e]

Lovely image, agree on the blue colors, very pleasing.

and the slight reflections in the water are lovely, too. 
nice image, Randy. 

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful!

[David H. Hartman]

A beautiful bird, pity it has such a terrible name.

Anyone have an idea why it's named a loon? It's a beautiful bird.

Dave

...or which came first the loon or the loon?

[Randy Stout]

Anyone have an idea why it's named a loon? It's a beautiful bird.

Dave

...or which came first the loon or the loon?

Dave:  here is a short description of the etymology of "loon"

Despite calls that make it sound maniacal, the word loon actually comes from a Shetland Islands word loom, which comes from the Icelandic word lomr and the Swedish word lom, which both refer to someone who is lame or clumsy. Loons were called this because of how awkward and clumsy they appear on land.


Randy

[David H. Hartman]

I guessed backwards. They are beautiful.

Dave

[myotis]

A beautiful bird, pity it has such a terrible name.

In the UK, we call them  "Great Northern Divers" a name I've always felt was more deserving of the bird than the North American "Common Loon".

Having said that there has been a relatively recent "rationalisation" and "Internationalisation" of English bird names so maybe we should also now be using Common Loon in the UK, where they aren't that common.

I have just checked and it seems that Common Loon is indeed the official international English name. It also seems there had been an attempt at compromise by calling it the Great Northern Loon, but this has been abandoned in the most recent list. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/loons/

Having said that, the most recent list for  the UK by the British Ornithologist Union (sponsored by Leica btw), which says it is following the guidance linked to above, still has it listed a Great Northern Diver http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12536/full.

So I'm lost now 

They still make for great photograph, what ever they are called.

Graham