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August 15, 2005
Swimming with loons
In the mid-afternoon heat on Saturday, my wife and I took a long swim. To avoid swimming directly into the sun, we followed a triangular route – east across the pond, south along the far side and northwest back to our camp.
On the final leg – the hypotenuse – two common loons appeared directly in front of us perhaps 75 yards away. We are blessed with loons on our pond almost every day, although they do not nest there. Their calls are magic, day or night. They sometimes fish within 10 feet of our shore. They have become so accustomed to sharing the pond with people that they do not necessarily flee when they happen to rise from a fishing dive and surface within a few feet of the bow of a canoe.
As we swam toward home on Saturday, we stopped talking and tried our best to breathe through our noses and not to splash with our strokes. We hoped to get as close to the loons as we could. They were not fishing. Instead, they were riding high in the water, their heads held erect. We could see their checkerboard backs and white breasts in the slanting rays of the August sun.
The loons did not seem to notice us until we were about 20 feet from them. Even when they saw us, they did not bolt. Their distress seemed only slight as they watched us and prepared to give us wide berth. We did the same, swimming around to their right as they swam to ours.
Then they began to call, first one, then the other. The call was not a wail. It was a soft, repeated, two-note song. We saw the caller’s beak, then saw the other loon’s beak scissor as it replied in kind.
We swam on, and the loons swam on, their calls becoming softer as the distance grew between us and them.
I remember many years ago going to the Connecticut Lakes in far northern New Hampshire and seeing loons for the first time. I stalked the shore trying to follow them, but they seemed wary of humans. With good reason, I am sure.
Loons are more common in our state now, but to me they still have a strong and mysterious attraction. Their size, their appearance, their behavior, their calls – we are lucky to share our waters with them.
Posted by Mike Pride at August 15, 2005 06:37 PM
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