COMMON LOON

One of the most beautiful sounds that for me defines wilderness is the call of the common loon. Its a sound that I often heard as a young field biologist while paddling in a canoe at night in the backcountry of Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario. While loons hunt for fish during the day when they can see them it was not uncommon to hear their calls advertising their presence after dark. This was not surprising because sound travels much further at night

During the day the air is turbulent even when it seems to be still because of the heating effects of the sun. Sound does not travel very far in turbulent air, given that what sound transmission is is the hitting of air molecules radiating out from a source. At night with the sun gone the air has a chance to become much less turbulent. Couple this with the increased moisture content over water and the ability of sound to travel long distances really increases—so much so that even the quiet conversations between people could sometimes be heard if their were campers on shore or in another canoe. At night loons can make other loons aware of their presence more than a mile away. Loons are so extremely territorial during the nesting season that it is normal to find only a single pair on most small lakes.

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