The Common Loon, or Gavia immer, has a sharp dagger-beak and deep black and white markings during breeding season. The Loon will glide low in the surface of the water (often it will swim with only its head above water), and in the evening or during mating rituals it will utter a long, wolf-like wail which will be woven into other, responding Loon-howls. It can dive up to 200 feet and will hunt, catch and swallow its prey underwater. While on the surface the Loon must have long stretches of water to take off and is in danger of being stranded in too small a lake, under the water the Loon is a bright black needle, quick and smooth. As a needle the Loon can weave, deft, through the wooly latticework shadows created by floating Duckweed. Where there is a lily stretching its reedy trunk towards the surface, where its bright circles of green cluster and glow, the Loon often acquaints itself with the spaces between the stems, sometimes plucking at them and watching the little green suns snap into themselves and bounce back like puppeted planets. He feels like a king until he must rise and take a breath, which he will take and give back with the cry of a fallen god.
© Kelley Bell 2011
Kelley Bell 