[obol] Apparent Yellow-billed Loon, Yaquina Bay

[Wayne Hoffman]

This evening (June 4) an apparent Yellow-billed Loon was hanging  out on the south side of Yaquina Bay, just downstream of the bridge.

The bird is in a difficult plumage, in heavy molt, from either first basic or (more likely?) second basic to the respective alternate plumage.  Distance was considerable, and the bird was somewhat backlit. It was loosely accompanied by a Common Loon in a similar plumage.

Bill:  long, heavy, whitish, distinctly upturned with straight or even slightly concave culmen, and quite a sharp point.  [A recent discussion of a summer bird in southern California made a big deal of larkness or lack thereof on the ridge of the culmen - I could not make this out one way or the other.]

Crown: overall pale and tannish brown, with a hint of an auricular spot.  irregularity in the pattern was indicative of molt.

Back:  mostly uniform brownish, without obvious marks.  The lack of pale cross-barring suggested 2nd Basic rather than first basic.  Some blackish feathering showed on the side of the back (i.e. on the folded wing) that might be alternate plumage coming in.

Size, distinctly larger than the accompanying Common Loon, but not necessarily outside the range of sizes of Common Loons.

If this is a Yellow-billed Loon as it appears, it would be the fourth or fifth here on Yaquina Bay in the past several summers, making  this an almost annual occurrence.

Wayne
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