I recently did a post about loons, but thought I would add this. Last week, when we were staying in Canisbay, Algonquin Park, we saw something that was completely new to us. We’ve seen loons run along the water as they are taking off to fly, but this time it looked like two loons were racing up and down the lake. At first we thought one of the loons was chasing the other, but our son who was out in a kayak said that they were running parallel to each other – just as if they were in a race.
This went on for almost a half hour with the loons racing back and forth across the lake. Everyone around us was watching the show, and no one had seen this kind of behaviour before.
It seemed that when one caught up with the other, that they would change direction and keep racing until the loon from behind caught up. It was hard to see them from the distance, and at first it looked like they were fighting – but they were only changing direction.
We have lived on a lake for many years and have several loons on our lake, but we have never seen this behaviour before. I looked on the internet to see if there was anything written about it, but only found a video showing a couple of loons racing. No one seemed to know about it. If you know of this behaviour or have seen it before, send me a comment so that we can learn about it.
Many times animals do something and we don’t understand why. They were a great entertainment for us. Isn’t it interesting how God makes the different animals and birds.