#3033 "Loon Run Way"

#3033 "Loon Run Way"
18 X 24 (inches) oils on canvas.
Started 9 am Wednesday, July 29th, 2026. 

#3033 "Loon Run Way" 18 X 24 (inches) oils on canvas. Started 9 am Wednesday, July 29th, 2026. 

This image was taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John has a very long lens and captures images of nature that are truly inspirational. John's photographs entice me to paint within the Singleton Studio when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. It was torrential rain outside when I started this painting ...

John captured a familiar yet unfamiliar sight of a loon slapping its feet and racing across the water, flapping its wings to gain enough airspeed for lift-off. The details of movement and the spray of water are something we only witness as a blur. John's camera reveals details that can typically only be imagined. His image would allow the interpretation into oils. 

At the Studio Easel my Dad built.

Loons have heavy, solid bones and legs placed far back on their bodies. Those are not design flaws! Given a choice of air, land or sea, the loon picked water. Loons were built to "fly" in the water. Getting into the air takes a lot of effort. A loon on land is trapped, unable to take off and barely capable of stumbling along. 

A loon needs a water runway of 90 to 1,300 feet (up to 0.4 km) and, on average, 30 seconds of strenuous effort to get their heavy body airborne. A strong headwind will shorten the required distance. In contrast, a tailwind stretches the runway to the quarter-mile maximum. Imagine running a quarter mile across a water surface and not achieving the air speed required for lift-off. Any loon who has done that would be exhausted and probably wait for a headwind. 

Thankfully, loons are not crazy in spite of that common misconception and the song by John Prine. Loons must instinctively read atmospheric conditions. As a result, most takeoffs require a sprint of about 200 to 600 feet across open water.

The bottom line is that loons need an air speed of roughly 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) for lift-off. That might be achieved by just strolling across the water with a near-vertical takeoff into a 25 mph headwind. A running speed of 25 mph is pretty fast! In this painting, those loony legs were really flailing! 

Consider that a typical adult jogs at about 6 mph (10 km/h), while a fit recreational runner sustains 8 mph (13 km/h). Runners can do short sprints reaching 20 mph (32 km/h). This is another reason to be very impressed by these crazy, athletic birds. 

Of course, lift-off is not just achieved by running! The wings provide some lift at lower air speeds, raising the loons above the water's resistance. The propulsion provided by the wildly spinning legs is then just required to incrementally add to their forward motion. The splashes from the webbed feet on the water's surface grow further apart. Wings take over the effort of getting airborne, and the loon flies! 

During migration, loons reach maximum flight speeds of  80 mph (almost 130 km/h) and fly nonstop for 9 or 10 hours. Loons average 250 wing beats per minute flying at altitudes of  3,000 to 5,000 feet (about 1 km).

A single flight covering 1000 km would place the Singleton loons in the salty waters of Chesapeake Bay or off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 

I can imagine a smile on the loon's beak every time it transitions from a graceful, synchronized swimmer to a speedy flier, having overcome the gravity of the situation. 

Interesting Facts:

• The loon swallows most of its prey underwater. The loon has sharp, rearward-pointing projections on the roof of its mouth and tongue that keep a firm hold on fish.
• Loons' legs are placed far back on their bodies, allowing efficient swimming but only awkward movement on land. Loons only go ashore to mate and incubate eggs. 
• Loons are agile swimmers, but they move pretty fast in the air, too. Migrating loons can fly at more than 70 mph.
• A loon family eat a lot of fish. Biologists estimate that loon parents and their 2 chicks can eat about a half-ton of fish over 15 weeks - the typical duration of their time together.
• Loons can quickly blow air out of their lungs and flatten their feathers to expel air within their plumage, so they can dive quickly and swim fast underwater. Once below the surface, the loon’s heart slows down to conserve oxygen.
• Migrating loons occasionally land on wet highways or parking lots, mistaking them for rivers and lakes. They become stranded without a considerable amount of open water for a long takeoff. A loon may also get stranded on a pond that is too small.
• The loon is flightless for a few weeks after moulting all of its wing feathers at the same time in midwinter.
• Juvenile loons are on their own when their parents leave after 3 months of nurturing. The juveniles gather into flocks on northern lakes and make their own journey south a few weeks later. Once the juveniles reach coastal waters on the ocean, they stay there for the next two years. In the third year, young loons return north. On average, loons are six years old when they start breeding.
• The oldest recorded loon was a female, and at least 29 years and 10 months old when she was spotted in Michigan in 2016 and identified by her band. 

I was reminded of the efforts of Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), a wealthy and meticulous French academic painter who was famous for detailed paintings of Napoleon and military sieges. Meissonier was also obsessed with capturing the exact mechanics of equine movement. Meissonier built a private trolley track on his estate. He placed a cart or rolling sofa on the rails and had servants pull him at the same speed as a horse galloping parallel to him. This allowed Meissonier to sketch the legs in motion from a steady perspective. He tried but never got it right. 

Eadweard Muybridge developed high-speed stop-action photography in 1877 with a fast shutter to capture a single horse in motion. In 1881, Muybridge visited Paris and projected his famous high-speed sequential photos of a galloping horse (Sallie Gardner at a Gallop) inside Meissonier's home. 

Previously, Meissonier had painted "flying horses" with all four outstretched legs off the ground at the same time. One of his depictions is in the upper left of the above graphic. 

Meissonier apparently wept with a mix of astonishment and disappointment upon seeing the photographic proof that a horse actually bunches its hooves under its belly when all four feet leave the ground. His lifelong, highly engineered observations had missed the truth. He immediately began adjusting his subsequent masterworks to match reality. A genius can learn from science and turn it into art. But I digress...

Here are just a few of the steps in achieving loon lift-off in the Singleton Studio... 

I have painted loons before. 

• See #1368 "Loon Lunch",
• , #1369 "Singleton Loon", 
• #2739 "Loons Next Generation", 
• #2862 "Pensive Loon"  and 
• #2863 "Post-preening Loon".  

Others without loon in the title might still be in the portfolio. For example, #0158 "Bass Lake, Restoule" (lower right painting) features a pair of loons from a canoe trip. 

Loon photography courtesy of my friend, John Verburg

Loons are a favourite bird. Their haunting yodels provide our summer soundtrack. We have maintained a loon nesting platform at Singleton since 2006, continuing the remarkable efforts of my friend Jimmy J. I hope there is someone to follow in our conservation footsteps when we can no longer continue. I need the tractor to launch the very heavy, white cedar log loon platform. We are all part of nature and need to assist one another. 

For this and much more art, click on Fine Art America or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick