I had a few moments after serving breakfast this morning to look through my latest edition of New Hampshire Magazine, and came across an article by Jamie Ducharme entitled “The Mysterious Loon.”
The article starts “The common loon is famous for its reclusive existence and with only an estimated 650 loons living in New Hampshire, brushes with the bird are novel and infrequent.”
As a person who just recently moved to New Hampshire when we bought the Lake House in November of 2011, I had never seen a loon, except for in the movie “On Golden Pond.” However, since we moved here, we have been blessed with seeing loons almost every day since Spring. We have seen a lone loon, and just the other day we saw a mother loon with eight baby loons. It may have been the cutest thing I have ever seen. Each of the babies (called “chicks”) was vying for the prime spot riding on the back of its mother. Each one would scramble up on its mother and unseat the one that was there, to only be unseated a few moments later.
Although many people call these birds “Common Loons,” they are actually “Great Northern Loons, or in Latin, “Gavia immer” These birds range from 24″ to 40″ in length with a wing-span of 4 to 5 feet. They also can weigh between 3 and 17 pounds. Loons can dive and amazing 200 feet.
While we can’t promise that you will see loons when you visit us, many guests have, and still more have heard the loons at night. Certainly a treat for us all.
