Usually late in the summer we hastily head to the waters for a chance to get some good images of birds that will be migrating soon. Living in such close proximity to lakes, much of the summer we've taken advantage of hearing their calls late into the night. Their wails and tremelos echo from lake to lake as they call to each other. It's a bittersweet sound near summer's end, and can makes us a bit frantic to get in those last snapshots before they leave us.

Hauling our cameras and the canoe on the water is risky business. We especially pay mind to not interfere with the loons, they need this time to catch fish, and our disturbance could be costly to them. But if you're still enough and quiet enough, they will busily swim around you diving deep into the water (some up to 200 feet) and travel at incredibly high speeds (up to 80 mph). Watching a mother catch small fishes for her little one is a special reminder that wildlife nurture their young just as we do. The young loon stays close to mom and nuzzles their beak into her feathers to feel more protected. It's picture perfect and we can't help but feel proud to have this as our state bird.