Loons

There are a few loons on North Star Lake here. We thought they were ducks from a distance, but then they did that distinctive takeoff involving slapping wings on the water. Look it up. 

I'd read as a kid that loons' feet are so rearward that they can't walk well on land. Hence, they're completely adapted to living on the water. When they want to move quickly, instead of paddling, they flap on the water and scoot over. 

They dive down and reemerge somewhere else. 

They have two calls that we've heard:

- a cartoony rapid ha-ah-ah-ah-ah that go on

- a dove like keening call that sometimes precedes takeoff