Skip to main content

Common Loon of Walden Pond

22 years ago I made my pilgrimage to Concord, Massachusetts as the leaves turned color. Not only was Walden Pond much bigger than I had imagined, but I was shocked by a bathhouse on the shore, having envisioned a pond in the wilderness. It took me quite some time to circle the lake by foot. I don’t remember seeing a loon there. Several years later one summer in northern Maine, I heard my first laughter of a Common Loon. The moment I heard it I knew what it was, thanks to the description by Henry David Thoreau.

“As I was paddling along the north shore one very calm October afternoon, for such days especially they settled down on to the lakes, like the milkweed down, having looked in vain over the pond for a loon, suddenly one…set up his wild laugh and betrayed himself….His usual note was the demoniac laughter, yet somewhat like that of a water-fowl; but occasionally, when he had balked me most successfully, and come up a long way off, he uttered a long-drawn unearthly howl, probably more like that of a wolf than any bird….This was his looning,—perhaps the wildest sound that is ever heard here, making the woods ring far and wide.”

Common Loon is one of those birds that adapt to both freshwater and saltwater habitats. It leaves its eerie howls and yodels behind in North Woods and is always quiet when I see it on the sea in winter.

Common Loon
Photo: A silent Common Loon, non-breeding, Emeryville, CA. December 11, 2015. By Minder Cheng.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wren around the House

There are three birds that occur in my area whose common names feature “house” as a descriptor: House Sparrow, House Finch, and House Wren. In my experience, the distribution of these three “house birds” seems to follow the pattern of population density. House Sparrow is an introduced species from Europe, and like humans who immigrated to the New World, it has adapted well to life in towns and cities. As urban concentration of houses thins out toward the suburbs, House Sparrows are gradually replaced by House Finches. As to House Wrens, they don’t come into view until we reach the rural country. That last point may not be true in other regions. A friend who lived in Missouri told me that House Wren would nest anywhere, even under your car if you didn’t drive the car for a day. I’ve never experienced such abundance of House Wren. My single encounter of a House Wren near any house happened just this year on a trip to Sierra Valley. At the “ranch” where we stayed, a family of House Wr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Peacock

"At first, the peacock, with his gorgeous train, demands our attention; but, like most of the gaudy birds, his notes are grating and shocking to the ear: the yelling of cats, and the braying of an ass, are not more disgustful." Letter XLIII. Sept 9, 1778. The Natural History of Selborne . My friend living on Oakland hills in a neighborhood with yard-raised peafowl would absolutely agree with this description by Gilbert White . After celebrating Henry David Thoreau's 200th birthday several days ago , I want to mark another occasion today: the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death. Austen didn't mention birds much in her novels other than game birds for hunting and partridge for table. Yet  Pride and Prejudice has been associated with the bird peacock because of beautiful cover designs . Jane Austen lived only a few miles from Selborne--there goes the connection to Gilbert White; therefore the peacock quote. That peacock graces Austen's book cove...
Post a Comment
Read more