After Carols post I rushed out today a little before 4:00 pm from Cleveland Heights to the end of Dock Rd where the Arcola feeds Lake Erie (Delorme, 32 B3). I took my visiting-from-out-of-town parents on this wild loon chase. The first bird I put the bins on was a horned grebe, bummer; then quickly raised the glass to a larger bird farther out on the water, maybe fifty yards from shore. Got the scope up quick and called out observations to my dad before he took his turn at the ocular lens. The bird stayed on the surface for the duration of our short stay. We viewed the bird from 5:00 to 5:15 with dimming conditions until we knew we would get no new field marks. The bird stayed on the surface the whole time, mostly preening. It raised up and flapped its wings twice. It paddled in small circles many times, often listing to one side for preening. The head is distinctly shaped, not rounded but with two small peaks, flat in between them. The nape and back were uniformly dark with!
 out any barring that I could discern. The bill, shorter than the head length, seemed flat and straight. It held its head slightly, slightly tilted up when looking around, but mostly not that I could tell when at rest.  White flanks were very obvious, especially when it was listing in small circles to preen. The white cheek patch,  rounded behind and below the eye, extends just up to the eye. I could detect no neckless (as depicted on pacific loon representations) or neck collar; a bit of gray peaks forward on the upper side part of the neck, but does not extend onto the front of the neck. The underwing was uniformly light across the coverts and axilaries, uniformly gray across the primaries and secondaries, with a thinly line of dark (on the body) separating the wing from the body. Some other impressions made it seem unlike common loons: a longer neck (or holding its head higher) and the bill to head ratio was not right, not massive enough for common. Overall the bird seeme!
 d slimmer; however, there were no other loons for direct comparison.

I am sorry not to have tried for photographs, but I thought time spent in observation better than spent in the pursuit of bad pictures given the waning light. I do not have experience with either pacific or arctic species. Optics used were Swarovski SLC 10x42s and my fujinon 80mm scope with 20x-60x zoom. I sure hope someone else can see the bird to confirm.

Cheers
Ben Fambrough
Cleveland Heights

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