The Loons of Ninevah

The Loons of Ninevah

 It was years ago that we spent the weekend on Lake Ninevah but I remember it well, like it was just yesterday.  It was summer, mid-July when we rented the cabin on the lake for a long weekend and we met the loons.  Loons are fascinating birds and so much fun to watch and listen too.  This was the first time I had actually seen loons alive and personal and I got to meet a whole family of loons, momma, daddy and two of their children.   I fell in love with them.

We arrived at the lake cabin around ten o’clock on Friday morning, unpacked and settled in for a glorious mini-vacation, my parents, brother, sister and me.  On Saturday my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins would be joining us fo the day and a sort of family reunion picnic on the island.  We’d be taking my uncles boat out to the island.  In the meantim I had plenty of time to investigate the area, me the 12-year-old nature sleuth, and it didn’t take me long to get started. I had  a good two hours to do my sleuthing before I would have to help Mom fix lunch for all of us so my brother, sister and I decided we should investigate the shoreline in front of our cabin.  Who knows what we might find?  I’d brought along my note book with sketch pad to take notes and draw pictures of the evidence, proof of life on Ninevah.   At only 12, and my fascinatio with nature, I had dubbed myself “Nancy Drew of the Northwoods.”  We waded in the water and walked along the shoreline while Dad and Mom did a little fishing, enough fish caught, we’d have fish for dinner. 

Within that first couple hours on Ninevah I had observed two chipmunks playing a game of hide and seek among some rocks and a gray squirrel skittering along the branches of a large oak.  I’d watched several chickadees, and seen two or three blue-jays. While wading in the water we’d seen a couple lizard like creatures we called salamanders but are actually efts and we held them for a while letting them walk on our hands and then put them back in the water again.  We’d watched some ducks out on the lake, three mallards and a pair of mergansers. We’d also found and carried around a couple good sized bullfrogs that we’d let go and re-capture and then let them go again. We took them to show Mom and Dad.  Dad told us to put them back where we’d found them and we did.  Mom and Dad hadn’t caught many fish, just 3 good-sized yellow perch and what I considered a giant sunfish but it was a start on dinner and Dad would fish most of the day.  Mom and Dad loved to go fishing, we all enjoyed fishing but I enjoyed my nature walks more and drawing pictures of and writing stories about what I saw.  This was going to be one wonderful weekend. 

 Every now and then as I sleuthed the area I’d stop and listen, I was hearing a sound, sort of a yodeling sound, it sounded like it was coming from farther up the lake and then like it was coming from the island where we were going to have our picnic tomorrow.  Onc we were out there I had a lot of investigating to do. and I wanted to find what it was I was hearing.  I’d ask Mom and Dad while wewere having lunch and get permission to walk farther up the shoreline.  I was more than a little curious. I was sure the yodeling sound was coming from out there on the lake and I knew it wasn’t a duck, not any duck I’d ever met.    

Mom called us back to where they were waiting and said it was time to go back to the cabin for lunch.  We made BLT sandwiches and had them with chips and pickles and Mom’s lemonade.  Over lunch, Dad explained that the sound I was hearing was the sound of loon, probably a family of loons and if we kept watch we might get to see them.  He described a loon to me and I made notes of what he had said and made a sketch of what I thought it would look like so I would know what I was looking for.  I was anxious to get back to my nature sleuthing but it would have to wait until we got back from blueberrying.  There is a farm not far from the lake where you can go and pick your own blueberries and Mom and Dad wanted to pick blueberries.  We left right after lunch was cleared away and didn’t get back to the cabin until a little after four o’clock.  Dad said I could go for my nature walk and watch for the loons but that I had to stay within hollering distance and be back at the cabin by five-thirty.  My sister didn’t want to go with me and my brother was  going to but changed his mind in favor of fishing with Dad.  I was on my own which pleased me just fine.  You can see and hear a lot more if you are quiet when you are in the woods or walking a shoreline.  I grabbed my notebook and pencils and left before Mom and Dad could change their mind and headed straight for the waterfront and walked in the direction I had heard the sound earlier in the day. 

I walked up the lake shore a short distance and sat down on a large rock to watch.  I was watching for the loons.  I listened and I waited.  I’d only been there about fifteen minutes when I heard the yodeling call of the loon.  At first it was only one and then I heard a second one answer.  I was practically holding my breath in anticipation.  I watched.  I waited; my eyes fixed on the lake.   

It probably wasn’t more than another ten minutes when I saw my first loon.  It swam by directly in front of me.  The loon yodeled a couple of times and swam in a circle several feet off shore.  It yodeled again and a second loon answered.  The loon in front of me began to swim toward the island.  Oh, what a magnificent bird, I thought to myself and I began to sketch. It was only a couple or so minutes when I spotted the second loon and then two more, much smaller and I was sure they were babies.  This really was a whole family of loons.  I was so excited and I couldn’t take my eyes off of them.  I fell in love with them, love on first sight.  If anything could make this a perfect weekend, seeing the loons was it.

I watched the loons for quite awhile that afternoon as they swam around out on Lake Ninevah.  I saw them dip and dive and heard them calling to each other and their two babies.  The parents caught small fish to feed their young and were teaching them to dive and swim under the water and search for their own food but then I heard Dad’s whistle and knew I had better be hurrying back to the cabin.  I wasn’t late but Dad’s whistle was a reminder I’d best be on my way.  I was so excited to tell them about the loons.  He and my brother had caught more fish, enough to have fish for dinner.  We roasted marshmallows over the campfire later that night.  It had been a  marvelously perfect day and I was grateful for it.  Oh, what a thrill to meet the loons of Ninevah.

I heard the loons again Saturday morning but didn’t see them again all day.  I looked for their nest while we were all out on the island but never found it.  I could be wrong but I’m fairly certain it was there somewhere.  I did find a few other treasures though, well, treasures to me, a few pretty stones that I wanted to keep, some acorns and pine cones, all treasures to a twelve-year-old. 

I didn’t see the loons again until late Sunday afternoon. Once we were all packed back up and about ready to go home.  We took one more walk along the lake shore and the loons were there, closer to shore this time.  We watched them for several minutes and then Dad said it was time to go and we headed back to the car and home.  On the way home we stopped at Ruth’s Lunch for dinner and there on the wall was a painting of The Loons of Ninevah.  It was a wonderful weekend indeed and one I will never forget.  Oh, how lovely are the loons of Ninevah.