Loon Lessons: Uncommon Encounters with the Great Northern Diver | Book Suggestion

[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

You’d have to be loony* to not like loons. The first time you hear their eerie, plaintive, ________ (insert your preferred adjectives here) call on a quiet northern lake, you fall in love. It’s a call from one creature’s heart to the soul of another.

[*Sorry, couldn’t resist.]

Loon Lessons: Uncommon Encounters with the Great Northern Diver
James D. Paruk | University of Minnesota Press | 2021 | 256 pages

From University of Minnesota Press:

The nature of the common loon, from biology to behavior, from one of the world’s foremost observers of the revered waterbird.

Written by one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject, Loon Lessons is a compendium of knowledge about the common loon and an engaging record of scientific sleuthing, documenting more than twenty-five years of research. It describes the common loon’s biology in an entertaining style that affords a deeper understanding of the bird’s natural history and annual life cycle.

James D. Paruk has written a wonderful, personal account of loon biology. He recounts thirty years of adventures with loons, summarizing what we know about them in the context of loons’ basic biology and behavior. Highly readable and informal, this book is for anyone who wants to learn more about loons. — Charles Walcott, former director, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology