We were further down the lake when we saw another one. This one acted about the same. They aren’t very pretty looking at this age.
I checked on the Internet and saw other pictures of young loons that look like this. We don’t get to see any young ones on our lake. We do have about 4 or 5 loons on our lake, but we have not seen any young ones in years.
When I checked, it sounds like the young loons are left on their own at about 12 weeks old. They migrate later than their parents, and they actually stay south for the next two years, then return to within 10 miles of the area where they were born. Amazing – how do they know where to migrate to? How do they know to wait until they are ready to breed in their third year? How do they know where “home” is, so they can return so close to it?