Loon Behavior—Previously Unseen...

[ApS]

On Monday morning (early), I sailed off into The Broads. Behind me, I heard a loon calling its only loud call—while in flight.

"Woo-hoo-hoo, Woo-hoo-hoo, Woo-hoo-hoo, Woo-hoo-hoo".

Glancing over my shoulder, two loons split up to divide their single course, and to give my boat "150' of safe passage"—but overhead! It may have been the same two Loons I saw on my early-Tuesday sail yesterday:

Not far off Tuftonboro's Middle Ground Shoals, I happened to sail towards two Loons together, "working" while diving a particularly small patch of the lake.

Intersecting the Loons (and my course) came a "work boat" from the direction of Center Harbor. This outboard boat was painted battleship-gray and had an American flag flying, centered on the top plywood roof-deck. It suddenly turned (towards me ) as though to single-out one Loon to run over!

Panicked, that Loon rapidly paddled in the direction of the other Loon, and was just missed by the boat!

The boat's occupants turned in their seats and seemed genuinely concerned at what had just occurred. (Not so much about the sailboat ). What happened next is something that I'd never seen before, after over four decades of watching Loon behaviors.

The two Loons repeatedly approached one another—paddling slowly past each other—while slowly bowing their heads low to the water. This went on for a good five minutes. This was followed by the larger Loon doing two "threat-displays".

They once appeared to gently touch their bills together!

One other endearing Loon behavior is the soft call between Loons (hoo!) known as the "I'm-OK—are-you-OK" call. Towards evening, it's a fairly common vocalization—mostly a soft call, but can vary in volume.

I've never seen this before...so...I'm just adding one more particular behavior evolved after millions of years by Earth's oldest living bird species.

[VtSteve]

about the Loons anyway

I thought the Sandhill Crane was the oldest living bird species?

A ten million year old fossil is pretty darn old.