The loons were calling this morning

 Lovely loon calls this morning. 4am seems to be the bewitching hour! There is nothing like it...so soul soothing when they are just calling calmly;-)

Did you know that the different loon vocalizations have different meanings?  Loon.org is a great loon conservation website for information and audio clips (with their meanings.) I also really liked this quote from the blog of the Cable Natural History Museum in Michigan.

"Loon Language: The mournful wail of a common loon echoes across the glassy water. From a neighboring lake, another loon replies with the same smooth cry. The loons are keeping track of one another, maybe as neighbors, maybe as mates, maybe as rivals.   Sometimes the still night air is pierced by the maniacal laughing yodels of two male loons. This signifies a battle over territory. Home territory means a lot to loons. The longer a male resides in the same territory, the greater his chance of raising chicks to adulthood. The resident male will fight to the death if necessary to defend his island, lake or bay. Even if the invading male wins, the resident female will stay on the territory with the new male.   An invading loon, looking for his own place to raise a family, will fly over an occupied territory and first give the wavering tremolo flight call. If the resident male is willing to fight for the prime real estate, he will reply with a yodel. The invading loon can tell by the lowest note in the tremolo approximately how big the defender is, and use this information to decide whether a fight is in his favor or not. If he chooses to fight, the invader replies with his own unique yodel. Loons can tell each other apart by their calls, and even third-graders can tell loons apart by looking at sonograms of their yodels!"

Stone, Emily M. “Natural Connections: Exploring North Woods Nature Through Science and Your Senses-Loon Language.” http://cablemuseumnaturalconnections.blogspot.com/2012/06/loon-Language.html, 26 June 2012.