Posted by Adam Quinan on December 20, 1996 at 14:30:33:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Where is Great Northern?? posted by peter on December 20, 1996 at 01:46:14:
Yes, I remember what was said about trying to find the birds, but that pair must be long gone by now!
Here in Ontario, Great Northern Divers go by the name of the Common Loon (apparently from the "lunatic" sound of
their call which is really eerie on a dark night on a lake up North) and while not really common are not rare.
Most Canadians carry around Loons in their pockets, there is one on the "tails" side of our dollar coins (or Loonie).
When the two dollar coin came out there was a move to put two loons on the back and call it a doubloon. You can imagine
Canada full of pirates crying out "Ahoy there mateys, give me your treasure and doubloons. Unfortunately the polar bear
won out!
Last summer my daughter and I swam out to about fifteen feet away from an adult pair and their two chicks. We
were able to watch the parents feeding them with small minnow sized fish they caught on their long underwater dives.
They didn't seem to be at all perturbed by our presence.
I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, even those in the Southern Hemisphere who are'nt experiencing -8 deg Celsius
weather today!