In the Field

Spring Loon - Just Cruisin'. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. May 31, 2026.

Another species that really doesn't immediately come to mind when you think Great Bear Rainforest is the Common Loon. But they're there - in the spring, summer and autumn! There's also Pacific Loons in the Great Bear Rainforest, and they tend to be most conspicuous in the autumn when they are migrating through and then they are often see in fairly large rafts.

This particular image of a male Common Loon was captured as a "field experiment" during my "Spring in the Southern Great Bear" Instructional Photo Tour. Prior to leading this photo tour I had tested the Sony A1 II plus Sony FE 600mm f4 plus 2x teleconverter (for a whopping 1200mm focal length) on things like squirrels and small birds. It performed surprisingly well - and certainly beyond my expectations. But during those tests I shot the 1200mm combo from a firm tripod. With this 1200mm loon shot I was hand-holding the camera/lens/TC combo from a floating Zodiac (which is more challenging than hand-holding when standing on solid ground).

Was the result acceptable? Well...you can judge for yourself (and it's best to take a gander at the 4800 pixel version linked below before doing so). Realistically, I can't see myself using this 1200mm combination of gear very much, but when the conditions and situation is right...I won't hesitate to turn to it.

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this stately Common Loon:

• Spring Loon - Just Cruisin': Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 2.5 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Spring in the Southern Great Bear Instructional photo tour in late spring of 2026. Each year I offer photo tours into the Great Bear Rainforest and, every other year, photo tours into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Spring Loon - Just Cruisin'. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. May 31, 2026.

Compressed RAW (ARW) format; ISO 500.

Sony A1 II paired with Sony FE 600mm f4 GM OSS lens with Sony 2x TC (1200mm). Hand-held from floating Zodiac inflatable boat. OSS on and set to Mode 1. Expand Spot (tracking) AF area mode with subject recognition mode set to Bird.

1/2000s @ f8; -2.7 stop compensation from multi-metered exposure setting (those highlights were HOT!).

At the Computer

Spring Loon - Just Cruisin'. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. May 31, 2026.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .arw (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD3 algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 9.5 Elite (using the appropriate camera/lens module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Capture One Pro (build 16.8). In the case of this image only two global adjustments were made - a reduction of the highlights and a global contrast adjustment using the Levels tool. Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 4 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, blacks, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Spring Loon - Just Cruisin'. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. May 31, 2026.

Species Status in Canada*: Not At Risk (2021).

The Common Loon (Gavia immer) is one of five loon species found worldwide. It's haunting calls have become icon vocal symbols of wilderness. Primarily fish-eaters, the Common Loon breeds across Canada and coastal Greenland and Iceland.

Common Loons appear to have a relatively healthy and stable worldwide population which has been estimated at about 254,000-265,000 breeding pairs. Based on estimates and extrapolations from aerial surveys there appears to be about 25,000 breeding pairs in British Columbia, Canada (where this loon was photographed).

The Common Loon is classified as "not globally threatened" (i.e., of "Least Concern" by the IUCN and "Not At Risk" by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC 2021).

*as determined by COSEWIC: The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.