The lake where I vacation is quite small. There is a nesting pair of loons there and they are rearing two chicks. The other evening I went out kayaking and watched something I've never seen before. From out of the blue three other loons landed in close proximity to the nesting pair. After some chest puffing and dancing on the water the five adult loons formed a circle at the surface while the two chicks paired up together on one side. The adults would dive down and at the same time the chicks only would go as far as sticking their heads underwater. This went on several times until a signal was given and all the loons moved to a different area to repeat the process. The only thing I could think of was that the loons were herding fish for easy capture and the chicks were observing. Eventually the 3 visiting loons left leaving the resident family. I don't know how they knew to come over or how they knew when to leave. I'm positive either visual or uttered signals were given by what seemed to be the largest of the loons present in the water. I found a couple of videos on the internet where others have filmed the exact scenario i just described. I'm only guessing the loons were cooperating in order to catch fish. Anyone else ever seen this or know what was going on?
