what looks like a black loon?

Took a rural road outside of Quincy IL down to a levee on the Mississippi 2 days ago. This particular road has canals and deep ditches all along it because it's in a flood plain. Happened to be in the right place at the right time to see hundreds of pelicans coming in and landing on the canals. Also saw my favorite Turkey Buzzards - these guys were actually on the ground, and 4 blue heron and a beaver and saw 4 birds that were shaped like loons and were low in the water like that, but were a solid color - either dark brown or black. Not sure of the beak color. They flew away or ducked under the water when I brought out my camera. It's been driving me nuts trying to figure out what they were. They can dive like loons also.

The bird that is coming to mind is a Cormorant. Here is a Double-crested from last year. Did it look like anything like this?

I was also thinking cormorants. The ones we have here are completely black. Maybe the size of a duck...? We sometimes see them on logs in the lake with their wings spread. :)

That might be it! I guess I always thought they'd be bigger than a duck and these were definitely about the size of a small duck. Thanks!

How about a Coot?

"All About Birds" a site by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is an excellent site and very popular with DG birders. Here are their links for a Loon, Double-crested Cormorant and Coot.

Maybe their info and pics will help you. If you scroll down each page towards the bottom, they have more pics that you can click through plus similar-looking birds. They can also be blown up larger which is nice.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Double-crested_Cormorant/id

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/id

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Loon/id