What are these Loons doing??

[bronco]

We saw these 2 loons speeding at high speed across the surface of the water - they did this nonstop for over 200 meters - zig-zagging back and forth. Apparently they were completely oblivious of our boats as they came with a few feet of us before the one chasing finally dived. What we would like to know is was this behavior one of territorial defense, courtship or other? Here are 3 of some 200 images I was lucky enough to capture of this sequence.

As always any help is very much appreciated.

[Brian Bailey]

I'm not usually in the right place at the right time to see Loon courtship, but this sounds more like a male chasing another male away from his territory.  If it went on that long, the intruder apparently wasn't getting the message!


BB

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[GStuart]

Assuming that isn't the intruder doing the chasing.

[bronco]

Thanks for the replies -- if it's a territorial chase I wonder why didn't the intruder fly away rather than expend all that energy "running" on the water??