Small Lake, Lots of Loons

Report from July 9, 2024

We have a spot on a small lake with many loons. It’s not your typical loon lake. Most of the shoreline has cabins and there are no islands or stands of lake grasses but there are plenty of small fish and I suppose that’s why 7 loons consisently inhabit this body of water. It’s also a perfect lake to view the loons in my kayak.

Of the 7 loons only one pair nested and they have 2 little ones. Of the other 5 there appear to be 2 paired up and 1 individual who wanders alone around the lake. One thing I noticed over 3 early mornings observing these loons is that each morning 2 other loons fly in, I’m assuming to feed. Each morning at about 7am the loons without young ones all gather together and appear to interact with one another. This meeting of the loon minds lasts about 10 minutes then the group disperses in 3 pairs and one individual to go about feeding.

The pair with loonlets stays away from these other loons constantly hunting and feeding the little guys who are now not so little.

Each morning was cool and fog of various densities covered the water until about 7:30am. I took the time to hammer the shutter on my camera to get the images you can see below. One thing I find challenging about photography from a kayak is wave action effects my photography and on each of these morning the lake was calm! Holy cow in the year of windy I got lucky! I also like the fact that the loons are good with the kayak and they will actually swim up to me just to say hello I think. This welcoming gives me a chance to get some great views at the broodless loons.

One more word about the kayak. Kayaks are cheap and very transportable. Get yourself in a kayak, it’s fun!

July 4th Loons

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That was crazy!

I’ve witnessed some crazy loon behavior, pun intended. And in my experience the best time to experience the crazy is in May and June. My guess is it’s because Mid-May thru June is mating and nesting season.

I wish I had photos of some of these behaviors I’ve witnessed but I’m hoping a written description will suffice. So off my memory here are a few nutty, notice I didn’t say loony, things I’ve seen loons do.

Never forget it. This loon had loonlets, I didn’t make that up. This loon was feeding baby loons in an open area of a large cattail field in the middle of the lake when the intruder, a red-necked grebe, approached too close. I’d say 100 feet. The adult loon got out of the water as fast as I’ve ever seen and flew straight up, only to come straight down on the grebe. If the grebe hadn’t scedaddeled under water quickly it would have been toast. Wish I had grabbed the camera.

In another instance I watched a loon try to choke down a pike that had to be 20 inches long.

Many times I’ve had loons chase a fishing lure right to the boat, scares the heck out of a guy.

I’ve had loons for no particular reason hang around my canoe going back and forth under the canoe in the middle of a large lake. This has happened numerous times. I’ve also had them pop up right by the boat when the bird was previously at least 100 yards away.

Then there’s the penguin dances. Watching this is more than fun. Commonly interpreted as an aggressive form of defending a territory or perceived intruders I’ve witnessed groups of loons dancing amongst themselves in April and May. My guess is these are males attemtping to create a pecking order.

If you love loons just watch them. You never really know what you’re going to see.