I don’t remember when I first heard a common loon in person. I didn’t spend much time on Canadian lakes until I was in my fifties. Of course, I’m sure I heard it in one of those wildlife moments that used to be on TV.
Their call is both extraordinary and, once heard, unmistakeable.
Black, white, black on white.
A mournful wail fills the dusk;
Day softens to night.
Gotta love those loons.
One interesting thing about them is that they mate for life.
Tom
Tom – Some wag will say that’s why they sound mournful. But not I.
The bird was a good choice for our “loonie” coin; its haunting cry is far more evocative of boreal lakes than, say, the chomping sounds of beaver teeth.
And in response to Tom, I gather that many birds are strictly monogamous — far more faithfully so than many of us humans.
Jim T
Jim T – Than many humans – or, indeed, other primates, I believe.
Isabel – it is a good thing that the dies for the new $1 coin got lost in transit between the mint in Ottawa and the manufacturing mint in Winnipeg. Otherwise, the new $1 coin would have the same obverse image as the old $1 silver dollar, i.e. two voyageurs in a canoe – and what would we have called the new coin then?
John – Loonies, maybe, but it might not have gone over well. I wanted our two-dollar coin to be a doubloon, but wasn’t able to sell that idea to the social media influencers.
Isabel – maybe cartoons seen in childhood have more impact on social influencers than do tales of the Spanish Main and Long John Silver.
John – 🙂 Yes, and maybe I don’t actually know any social influencers. That makes it harder to win their hearts and minds.
The F.R. Crawley film *The Loon’s Necklace* (1948) made a huge impression on me as a child. I think it imbued all loons with a mythic quality that deserves respect.
Laurna – Interesting. I’d never heard of it but there are (of course) a few versions on YouTube. Here’s one: The Loon’s Necklace.