I've looked at many on-line photos of Common and Red-Throated Loons and can't find any that shows as dramatic a "kink" in the neck as on the bird I saw today. (The neck emerged from the body and then turned downward about 60 degrees before leveling out parallel to the ground - very odd looking!) However, one of the illustrations in the big Sibley book of a Red-Throated Loon is close. Would a loon cruise along with geese?

Maeve
 
On Dec 2, 2013, at 7:28 PM, Ian A. Worley wrote:

> Red-throated Loons have that neck characteristic, and would look thin compared to the geese.
> 
> Ian
> 
> On 12/2/2013 7:18 PM, Don Clark wrote:
>> Loon?
>> 
>> On Dec 2, 2013, at 4:56 PM, Maeve Kim wrote:
>> 
>>> On a day where almost all the colors were in a palette ranging from whitish-gray to blackish-gray, I saw three wonderful birds with the same palette: two Long-Tailed Ducks under the bridge to NYS, a "Gray Ghost" sharing a field off Jersey Street with an immature harrier, and a Northern Shrike at Brilyea.
>>> 
>>> There were many flocks of Canada Geese overhead. In one, there was one slightly shorter and considerably skinnier bird flying with a downward crook in its neck, so that the plane of its head was lower than the plane of its body. The only thing I can think of is a cormorant, but I can't remember ever seeing a cormorant fly with its head that low. Any other ideas?
>>> 
>>> Maeve Kim
>>> Jericho Center