Stuff you might not know about COMMON LOONS.

[Music] me oh I live with common loons lots of them I live in a log cabin in a lake in Maine this is my view from the house and this is the view of my house that the loons get [Music] every night I fall asleep at the beautiful haunting sound of loons calling and every night I wake up to them at 3am hey knock it off [Music] all right grab a paddle and a life jacket we're gonna go meet some loons oh [Music] classic they're looking for fish and when they see them down they go this is awkward Mama her dancer doesn't see me she's leading her chicks right up to me There She Goes all right let's go meet some loons I'm 50 yards away they're just sitting there and hooting happily I am not bothering these guys oh for God's sakes this way I'm right up to me I could touch these guys with a paddle well thanks for that don't worry these are my friends except when they're not two weeks ago these loons would not let me anywhere near their brand new chick see I speak their language I know their habits it's maybe a little more complicated than you think for one thing a couple of months a year they don't like each other in Winter you could drive a truck in the ice out here in early spring it all breaks up and disappears and within minutes the first loon arrives actually they've been watching and waiting even if the ice goes out of the dead of night I know it's gone out because I can hear the Loon starting to call at three in the morning they can move in in total darkness males get here first it's mating season and they're looking to establish the same territory they had last year but it's no sure thing loons don't mate for life In fact when they go their separate ways in Winter they don't see each other again until spring and it's an open competition the same pair May made up a year two three four even seven years in a row but sooner or later something's going south there are territorial fights sometimes to the death those builds are daggers and they can kill and they do loons aren't old enough to bait or compete for territories so they're at least five usually six years old they won't even try to fight but once they get to that age they might challenge an older loon for the right to the female in the territory the older loon has a lot invested he already has a mate he already has a territory he knows he's going to fight to keep it and he's often going to lose it's case of a younger stronger loon taking on the old timer and it doesn't usually end well for the old timer since any young loon is too young to compete for a territory mostly they'll just stay in the ocean year round no sense getting beat up an older wiser loon when you don't have to but once they're old enough they may just go in and pick a fight females will also quarrel over territory but they won't fight to the death the loser just goes off to another Pond and tries again well I see the Ospreys have fledged they're four of them out here three in the tree one flying off adult loons face a lot of threats but Predators aren't normally one of them except maybe for this adult Eagle they sometimes attack a common loon sitting on a nest where the Loon is vulnerable but that bill can kill an eagle and has and they know it so mostly they just leave the loons alone otherwise The Loon can just dive underwater and wait out the eagle usually the Eagle's not even going to try well these guys are no threat to anyone they're off the nest and they moved off to some of the nearby trees so I guess they're branching out people are the biggest threat starting with lost fishing gear uh lead sinkers think to the bottom the loons pick it up thinking they're stones and they can poison themselves and it happens way too often discarded fishing line they can get tangled in that loons cannot walk on land so they nest right on the shoreline they have to scooch up in their bellies to get into the nest unfortunately right on the shoreline that means they're vulnerable to flooding and especially to waves of big boats going by too close to shore even if it doesn't destroy the nest it can actually wash the eggs right out of the nest foreign doesn't happen often but snapping turtles can take a baby loon largemouth bass which was illegally introduced into this Lake and take a baby loon and worse some idiot some time ago dumped northern pike into this Lake and they'll eat anything so I do speak loon and a lot of this early season calling is the yodel that's males identifying who they are and how aggressive they are in warning others to stay out of their territory [Music] they'll do it at night too just to warn any over-flying loon to keep on flying [Music] the whale is just long distance communication they're staying in touch with each other because they can get quite separated without foraging especially at night they can get a quarter mile half mile apart so they just tell each other where they are [Music] the tremolo is when loons are agitated usually some kind of threat both genders do it Eagles boats float planes we'll set them off I always know when an eagle is flying by especially early in the season because the loons just pop a gasket later in the season when the chicks aren't so much under a threat uh they calm down so here's the thing if they don't like a boat or getting too close they will do the tremolo and let you know and it's my goal not to bother these loons and it's sometimes not easy so I was out here a couple of weeks ago when the baby was just off the nest and Mama Loom would not let me anywhere near nor did I go near I stayed more than 200 yards away but she still kept getting bad so I drifted off then the male and female hooked up with a youngster and started drifting my way and I'm like what am I going to do just sit here and let them try to get by without problem am I supposed to paddle what am I supposed to do so they're getting closer and closer and doing the tremolo and I know I'm causing them problems and either I can paddle and panic them more or stay where I am foreign well they kept coming closer so I moved off and things calmed down right away just pay attention especially powerboats don't run them over later in the season as things calm down you hear a lot of little Hoots those are just little happy call notes as they talk to each other how's the fishing later in the season they'll often come together in sizable groups they'll surround a school of fish Circle it makes dining a whole lot easier it's a buffet table down there all right I'll leave you with one last challenge if you get to play with loons yourself try filming loons against a background of Fall Foliage because they don't leave until it's just about ice up foreign [Music] [Music] okay I guess they are worth a little bit of a lot of sleep [Music]

Channel: Bob Duchesne

Views: 6,160

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Id: lIVD0Qs1y4o

Length: 9min 47sec (587 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2023