When I hear the call of the loon, I am reminded of home. So this is serious business for me.
We always told each other about the romanticism associated with the loon's breeding habits. Apparently, this romantic thought is not so. Loons do not always mate for life. Loons are reluctant to breed and nest in polluted and de-sensitized habitats. They have abandoned lake-shore breeding grounds in Southern Ontario. Pollutants, oil spills, lead poisoning, mercury poisoning, and lake acidity can cause vicious cycles that kill or bio-accumulate additional poisons. Take for example the acidity of the lake. The acidity can kill the loon (among other wildlife) and it can also increase the levels of mercury.
That's your mini-ecology lesson today.
signed, the willow
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