Catch of the Day: A Lifer Loon

“No matter how frenzied you feel, no matter how shoved and strangled by the rush of events, you are standing in a single exquisite moment.”

– Kathleen Dean Moore

Moss Landing, California
March 2025

During my most recent visit to Moss Landing I saw, for the first time this year, birds sporting their breeding plumage. The willets were now showing dark speckles on their backs. Eared grebes had golden feathers fanning from behind their ruby red eyes. Common loons wore striking black and white plumage like they are dressed for a black-tie event. A red-necked grebe had on its black cap, white throat and eponymous red neck. All these birds are a dull gray and white during the non-breeding season.

The biggest surprise was seeing a red-throated loon in breeding dress. It was the first time I knowingly have seen this species, making it a “lifer” for me; I added it to my life list. An ancient pleasure, like a deep satisfaction, is triggered when I connect with a new, previously unknown, creature. The brief moment when our far-flung lives intersect fills me with wonder. A single exquisite moment!

These loons winter along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and breed in the far northern arctic tundra, all the way to the top of Greenland. There was also a juvenile red-throated loon swimming nearby. The juvenile looks similar to the non-breeding adult.

Loons are diving, fish-eating aquatic birds, with five species worldwide. The red-throated loon is the smallest and lightest of all loons. There are more ways they differ from other loons. Their breeding grounds are the farthest north. These loons will dive from the air for fish, dropping like a falcon; all other loons only dive from water’s surface. These are the only loons that can take flight directly from land; other loons need to start in water. Most loons and grebes carry their small young on their backs; the red-throated loons do not.

And a fun fact: there are several collective noun for loons, including “an asylum,” “a cry,” “a loomery,” “a raft,” or “a water dance”.

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(Note: Moss Landing was the site of a recent lithium battery fire. The retired power plant (with its iconic smokestacks) now houses several lithium battery storage areas making it one of the largest facilities in the world. Lithium battery are unstable and their fires are dangerous. They burn so hot that firefighters can only watch as the flames burn themselves out. The fires create toxic fumes with heavy metals that fill the air and settle into the soil and water. The local human residents were evacuated but the wildlife remained innocent of the threat. It is still unknown how the natural environment, as well as nearby agricultural fields, have been effected by the incident.)

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