Loons

I am a displaced Minnesotan, not that I don't like Indiana, I do. But, there are some things I miss. One of them is loons. Loons are a funny looking bird with a strange call. But, it evokes the backwoods in my mind—a campsite on a lake with canoes pulled up and a nice campfire with pancakes cooking over it and fog rising from the waters as the sun begins to rise. The lonely call of a loon from somewhere over the water in the fog, answered by another one.

Well, you don't see loons much except in the northwoods because they are solitary and shy birds. So, imagine my surprise when I was walking to work yesterday morning, looked out over the lake and saw a loon! Yes, it was a loon, funny looking thing, riding low in the water, then gone. A minute or two later, up it comes, quite a distance from where it went under. It was close enough that I could see the plumage clearly. It was migrating and had stopped at Winona Lake for the night. It made my day.