Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE LOONS AND GREBES

Loon Descriptions

The eggs are, however, adapted for concealment, being dark brown or olive, speckled or spotted with brown or blackish, thus harmonizing with the grass lining of the nest. The eggs, two in number, are elongate-ovate in shape and of large size. The cry of the Loon is exceedingly loud and melancholy, being likened by some to the howl of a wolf or the prolonged scream of a human being in deep distress.

It is frequently uttered at night, or in early morning when nature is otherwise silent, and the effect upon the startled listener is often one of fright and horror. They feed entirely upon fish, which they are adepts in capturing. The following account is from the pen of Dr. Coues, and refers to the Pacific Loon (Gavia pacifica), which he once found surprisingly tame about the bay of San Pedro in southern California: “

Now two or three would ride lightly over the surface, with neck gracefully curved, propelled with idle strokes of their paddles to this side and that, one leg, often the other, stretched at ease almost horizontally backward, while their flashing eyes, first directed upward with sidelong glance, then peering into the depths below, sought for some attractive morsel.

In an instant, with the peculiar motion, impossible to describe, they would disappear beneath the surface, leaving a little foam and bubbles to mark where they went down, and I could follow their course under water; see them shoot with marvelous swiftness through the liquid element, as, urged by the powerful strokes of the webbed feet and beats of the half-opened wings, they flew rather than swam; see them dart out the arrow-like bill, transfix an unlucky fish, and lightly rise to the surface again."

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