Saddening News

   About a week ago, my cousin sent me a video of a bird swimming in the shallows of a small inlet by her house.  "What is this, Cuz?" she asked.  Looking at the bird, it was hard to identify positively but once the bird called, I knew right away.  "A loon! Rather a Common Loon." was my answer. Knowing that these birds should have been long gone from the area, she and I fretted over the health of the bird.  This past December, a loon had been seen with a fish hook lodged in its bill and another in its wing.  The two hooks were connected by a steel leader so there was no breaking loose.  All efforts to catch the loon were futile and the poor bird suffered greatly.  Now, this bird appeared to be having problems.

  As the week progressed, the loon stayed near.  Some mornings, it was at our pier and others, it was back at her place.  She and I both worried that something was not right with poor bird. Never did we witness that the loon was fishing.  It could dive well and did preen but we never observed it feeding.  We were both in hopes that perhaps the bird just needed rest before heading northward to be with the other loons.

  This morning, however, my cousin sent another photograph.  This one was saddening as the bird had perished during the night and its lifeless body was floating in the inlet at her place.  While neither of us could call this bird our "pet", we were both disheartened to learn of its death.  If only there was something that we could have done to preserve the bird's health.  While I do not believe the two loons mentioned above were one and the same, I do find it strange that we lost two of these fine birds within a matter of months.  Hopefully, this death was just a fluke of nature and not something that could have been prevented like the one in December.  That deathtrap was caused by the sheer stupidity of some so-called fisherman.  Rest in peace, Little Loon, rest in peace.  Your plaintive wails will be missed during the nights on the Bayou.