 If you watch Common Ground online, consider becoming a member or making a donation at lptv.org. Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people November 4th, 2008. My name is Carol Bowman, and I live in Aurora, Minnesota, on Embarrassed Lake, between Aurora and Boabic actually, and I recently published a book called Tucked Under about a baby loon from when it was an egg to when it left the lake. I told it like the baby's telling the story, so there's a whole history throughout for three months of his growth. My husband, George Kobe, found the egg one day when we were kayaking, and we found the nest along this island where we've seen things before, and so he goes, oh, there's a loon's nest, and so that's how we kind of found the nest right away, and there was a couple of loons swimming around there and stuff. We made sure that we weren't too close so that they weren't disturbed and stuff, but the next morning I went out right away and stuff too, so we were anticipating when the birth would be in stuff, so it took about a month after we found the nest before it was born, so on July 6th. The picture of the egg was amazing because it was like, oh my God, there's the first picture of the loon and of the baby, I would say, and the spotted colors, and it was a great big egg, and I know that they only have one or two because of the loon's shape, but it was really nice to see how they build the nest in, and they turn it every so often, I think, and it was enough in the sun that they could go off and feed, and it would still stay warm with the light on it. The mother lays very flat when you go by the nest because it's being protective of the egg, and so it lays very flat and just trying to look like it's not there. The reason I called it tucked under is I got some great photos of the baby actually under the mother's wing. I know there's photos of him sitting on top, but I was actually watching him crawl up underneath the wing. She'd lift up her wing and he'd crawl under, or sometimes she'd lower herself almost like a submarine and he'd ride up and be on top there, so it was just amazing to watch that little thing underneath her wing. The mother went down quite a few times a day, I mean a lot, to feed the baby and stuff, and it would go down, and then when it popped up, the baby's always waiting in the water, and so when it popped up, she would make little peeping sounds if it wasn't looking towards her to make sure he or she knew that I have food for you, so she went over there, and sometimes the crayfish was so big that they'd drop it, and when he's trying to get the crayfish, and then about three or four times before he finally got it, and I couldn't believe he ate that whole thing, so as it shows in the book when he's burning his wings there, I ate the whole thing, so. He had quite an awkward phase there. They grow up and it's like when they rubbed their feathers and they're preening, so he had a mohawk for a little while, and he had, you know, it wasn't very pretty, some of his growing up and stuff, but most of the time it was so cute. The little fluff plus out the little feathers, you know, and the red eyes didn't come out till way at the end. He'd do everything that the parents would do, basically started diving not too long after he was born and stuff, but growing up it was fun, and as it was a juvenile even, I noticed the parents still went down for food for the baby, and whenever she would come back up, he'd just go up and snuggle on her neck, and everything was really cute to watch, so. While I was kayaking and I would stay a distance to make sure that they just kind of got used to me and stuff, and so I'd take pictures and they swam around me and they weren't afraid, and it seemed like as long as they knew he weren't going to hurt them, and I sat for so long there that they just got used to me, and when they hung out together and the baby was comfortable enough to just, you know, and wasn't afraid to flap its wings or, you know, everything like that, so. The male would make a few sounds, they seemed to be the squawker of the group, and so the others, but they were real protective of the baby, and so they always stayed with me for great pictures because the baby was right there, and the parents were right together, so it made great pictures. I just get excited myself about nature, I love being out there. Any little thing makes me happy, like, you know, the water opening up when the ice comes off the lake or any little thing like that, so I'll take little things like bark, close up a bark, or, you know, loons or whatever, and so once I was out there and we found this, and it was like, oh, every day it just excited me to see how big he was or what are they going to teach him today, feeding him fish or, you know, him taking it and many times he would drop it and she'd have to pick it up, and how big the crayfish was that he ate and having to spread his little wings with no feathers basically on it, but fluff. I would come back every day and put these out on Facebook and everybody loved the journey of the little loon on Facebook and so that's when I made the book. So when I brought it into the camera shop in Virginia, we would put together photos and she said, you're not going to go through all these thousands of pictures for 50 in a book and I said, yes, I am, and so I went home one weekend and picked out 50 photos and I came back and we made a prototype of a book and I sold actually 100 of those and she said, okay, that's enough, and I said, what? She said, we need to make a real book and so that's when we actually put one together on the computer and did everything you're supposed to and we sent it out to a printer and have gone from there. The book ranges for all ages. I have facts in the back. It's also written like a baby loon is telling the story so children love it. It's not long. The pictures are, there's so many pictures in there. There's 50 photos in there and everybody enjoys looking at the book and then they see the different phases of the loon like, oh, look, there's this little tail or when the mother taught the baby loon how to lay flat so that there's danger and stay still so no fish will get you while I'm off because the parents would leave and go to the other end for a certain amount of time. That must have been their coffee morning or something and then they come back and then all of a sudden there's the baby loon because she just knows when to come back or they must make little sounds or something like that. So, but I, like I said, I've had anywhere from an eight-year-old could read every word but one and to a 92-year-old friend of mine that from Rochester who said, I just love your book. When I feel down, I read your book and it makes me feel good and I've had many people come in saying, I said so many, so much in so few words in the book and they even said stroke of genius which I laughed at but anyway, that was fun. I worked with Barb Tucker from Andrew's Camera and she helped me put it all together on the computer. We picked out colors of the pages and I actually wrote what to say with each picture which my little child, Brain, says, oh, look, my name is baby loon. I love being on the water and I love to swim with, there's my mom on the nest just waiting for me to be born. So we put that together and we found a printing company and they printed the books up and we ordered 100 to start with and then we ordered another 200 then we ordered 400 and so I've sold probably about 1300 books in the last six months. I go all over to resorts and stores and just sell my book. I guess for self-hublishing don't be afraid of it. I never knew anything about it. I didn't even know I was going to make a book but I came through with documenting the first three months of a baby loon's life and so we got together on the computer and don't be afraid to try it. Get your camera out. Keep it out all the time. Take pictures of whatever you like and there's somebody out there that loves everything too. So if you'd like to purchase my book called Tucked Under, you may find them at any resorts or stores along the North Shore, along in northern Minnesota or on my website. We live on the lake and so we just bought some kayaks and got out and it's so peaceful. I'll go out at 5.30 in the morning and there's nobody else in the lake. There's mist and you hear the loons just calling and it's just, I think people in the cities have no idea, you know, get out of nature and love life. It was so amazing to follow this family. I just couldn't believe I was seeing everything I did but because along the lines and not just following the family, you saw eagles, you saw beaver swimming, you saw deer swimming. So it's the whole life of the lake, actually. And I would show some neighbors and they said, I didn't realize there were so many animals on this lake. I'm like, well, get out there. You know, that's the thing. You need to get out and experience everything about the water and stuff. But just watching those babies, I just felt so lucky to have found the nest and be like where nobody else is on that lake. So it's just quiet. When you, and if you find a loon nest, make sure you stay far enough away. You don't want to disturb the living area of the loons themselves so that they can teach the baby and without any fear of danger or, and you'll know it, the father will squawk or the mother will squawk too. So you just keep a safe distance and so the baby isn't afraid either. Which I did and you make sure you're respecting nature so they can move on and grow up with their life and everything like that. But I think don't be afraid to take your camera out with you wherever you go. And if you see wildlife, keep a distance but you can get good pictures no matter where you are. You know, but keep a distance so they're not afraid and you're not disturbing them at all so they can keep living in harmony like we wish we could, you know. I think when you get out in the kayak and you're on the lake by yourself like I do in the morning, it's usually I get up at 5.30 in the morning and it's just such an inner peace. The rewards of nature, I just makes my heart just swell. I love it so much. I'm not a lot of people think like that but I think putting my pictures out there has made people think a little bit. Like if they see my book, they go I didn't even know that about a loon or I didn't know that about a deer or I have an eagle picture of them eating this fish or hauling it off, you know. People don't realize and they don't think when they throw something in the lake or garbage in the lake or whatever, you don't think. And that's so wrong because, I mean, loons could pick up anything, everything. Just keep it natural and love the beauty of the woods and the lake so. The last day I saw the loon and when he took off for that last time I was so sad. I was just like, got a little teary-eyed because I thought, what am I going to take pictures of now? But I looked across the lake and I thought, is that a beaver? No. And here was a deer swimming so there is always something out there to take photos of. So take your camera everywhere.