Your karma quotient just jumped immensely.

The youngster was incredibly lucky that you did that.

Loons are an incredible bird.

Thank you for supporting the Canadian economy.

Actually, a fond memory of mine is traveling north in Ontario as a child, and camping near North Bay, Ontario on the lake. Every morning you'd be greeted by the call of the loons.

Hey River, you Rock!

I'm so glad you helped the poor baby loon. I hope it manages to get out before the bad weather.

Bless you.......you do know that you'll be rewarded for that selfless act of kindness. Most people would just say "oh, it's just a loon....let it figure it out itself." We need for more people to be like you, RW. This world would be a better place.

Wow Riverwild, you're my hero.

Good Job to both of you!! It was bitterly cold yesterday (as it is today).

Thanks everyone!

We truly did what we did because these are such majestic birds. They are beautiful and the sounds they make are just unearthly. They nest on the end of our island and they mate for life. It is VERY unusual to find one still here at this time of year. When I got up this morning I looked out the window and the ice had formed all the way to my dock, so that youngster would have been toast if we had left him there yesterday. i was happy to NOT see him this morning. It's still wayyy too windy to go out and see if he has beached somewhere else nearby, but I can't find any sign of him.

I talked to my brother about it and he asked why I didn't just grab the bird and toss it in the air so it would fly away. We didn't touch the bird in any way, we didn't want to hurt it or give it any reason to even think humans are it's friends, because they are not. We also felt that it needed time to recover and get the ice off it's feathers and it may have been injured if we tried to throw it in the air.

For those of you who have never seen a loon or heard it's sounds, I found a great page with some audio files and pictures.

http://www.ns.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/loons/images.html

I'll post if it comes back or I spot it again but I hope it's decided to move to the ocean where it belongs during winter!

you did good RW, thanks for the link we played the loon calls and our cat trouble aka spaz is gonna attack the laptop, he is not sure what to make of the wail or the last call the yodel

ahhhhh, found this bit after cruising around your linkie, River (thanks, I enjoyed the pix!):

All five species of loons migrate to warmer areas around the Gulf of Mexico and on the east and west coasts of North America to winter, and return to northern lakes to breed when the ice melts in spring.

http://www.ns.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/loons/index.html

so I wondered if your Loon might be coming HERE to stay for the winter...

LOONS: Gaviidae

41 Red-throated Loon Gavia stellata MX
42 Pacific Loon Gavia pacifica MX
43 Common Loon Gavia immer MX
44 Yellow-billed Loon Gavia adamsii MX

http://www.exoticbirding.com/home/ne...checklist.html

alas, Loons haven't been spotted here in Belize... according to the Exotic Birding site... apparently they only go as far south as Mexico... but I was still hoping, so...

next, I checked my reliable bird-watching guide Birds of Belize by H. Lee Jones, and there's no Loons listed, not a single one...

well, maybe I will still get to hear or see a Loon, on my next trip to Mexico?