Loons on the Beach

By this time every year, many of our northern friends have come to the beach for the warmer weather and a whole lot of them look like loons. I mean that in the nicest way because they are loons. If you are used to seeing loons up north “on golden pond” you may not recognize them here because their outfit is quite different. Loons tend to favor casual beach wear here; no need to be formal. I’ve mistaken loons for cormorants but I read that cormorants don’t have the delicate white in their wing so that helps and they don’t do the wing drying exercise either. Gary Parsons tells me the beak is another difference to look for. Loons have a dagger beak and cormorants have a hook at the end. Since loons see their prey, primarily fish, before they dive, they like our clear water.

And of course who doesn’t like to winter along our Gulf of Mexico coastline. Sure it can get cold here but I usually walk the beach barefoot year round. Heck last week I had on board shorts and a tank top and sat in the sun for several hours reading.

 

A loon body is much better suited to water and air than to anything that has to do with land. I watched this one for quite awhile who seemed to be taking a rest in shallow water. He started to sort of crawl/scoot away from me when he thought I was getting a little too close and looked pretty darn vulnerable. Gary tells me that is because they cannot walk. Feet designed for swimming are pretty useless on land. Their take-offs can be a little unwieldy too but the wings are very helpful underwater for speed. The name loon probably comes from lumme, an Old English word meaning lummox or awkward person, or perhaps the similar Scandinavian word lum meaning lame or clumsy. Not a very complimentary name but understandable after I saw that crawl/scoot maneuver.

Out in the gulf water, a loon can appear to be a snake rising out of the surf because its plump belly is submerged. Accomplished divers, they can dive over 200ft below the surface and they eat their prey underwater. When I watched one dive for dinner my short little attention span lost interest waiting for it to surface and then I was surprised by when its head popped back up. They have red eyes but I haven’t gotten close enough to observe that. I usually see them in flocks close to shore near the dune lake openings, dipping up and down with the chop of the water. Occasionally I’ll see one working the dune lake alone.

The lone loon… you wonder why he is off fishing on his own; what makes him tick this rogue of a bird? Why does one loon buck the establishment like that anyhow? Is there something special about him? Does he see things others don’t? And with his choice of attire fooling my eye is this lone loon a he or a she? Both genders of the loon wear unisex clothing so I’ll just never know.  They strip down out of their feathers (aka molt) once a winter so you'd be polite to avert your eyes if you see them naked. I'd bet they do that out in the deeper water because it makes them flightless. They can live to be 30 years old so I hope to see this one again someday, my time on the beach enriched by the company.