<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>There is something like loons visiting a pond in our wooded, sheltered, pond way back in our yard (about 1200 feet back). The sounds they make sure are looney! <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />The loons from up here like to winter in your part of the country (and also up both the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards, I'm told). Their winter plumage is gray and drab, and they don't often sing in the winter. In some regions, they are called "gray ghosts" for their muted colors and the eerie way they silently glide through the water.<br /><br />They also sit very low in the water, so watch for that to identify them. Grebes also sit low in the water, however. The best way to distinguish loons from grebes is the bills -- grebes tend to have more color. Anhingas, common in your part of the country but unheard of in Minnesota, also have sharp pointed bills for spearing fish, but they swim submerged, with only their heads and long necks protruding from the water. (This is why anhingas are also called "snakebirds".) Cormorants can also be mistaken for loons, as they too sit low in the water. They are completely black except for their beaks at all times of the years. Their beaks are red, and they have a little hook at the end of their beaks.<br /><br />All of the above are diving birds, and several take off by sprinting along the water's surface, although loons seem to take a particularly long time to get in the air. They are extremely good fliers and extremely good underwater swimmers. It's the bit in the middle that they seem to have trouble with. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />Here's a website with information about <i>Gavia immer</i>, the common loon, Minnesota's state bird. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />
Common Loon On the right-hand side are pics of the bird in both summer and winter plumage. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>