Adult male loons weigh 7 to 17 pounds, females weigh 5 to 14 pounds. To get airborne requires a decent amount of “runway” water. Take-off requires facing into the wind while flapping and running on the water surface for upwards of 500 feet. The stronger the wind the shorter the distance. Loons have a wing span of 5 feet. And the body length of 3 feet.

 During the summer adult loons gather in small groups of up to 20 or more adults. Social time can go on for an hour or more. Once social time concludes loon pairs peel away and take off, heading back to their own lakes

 Near the end of the summer you will see that the adults have left. And only the young ones, now full sized are left swimming on the lake by themselves. Winter is fast approaching and the young have no choice but learn to fly or die. They spend may hours running with all their might building strength in their wings. Where do they go during the winter? Most upper mid-west loons fly to the Gulf of Mexico.

Information drawn from

Our love of loons, by Stan Tekiel