Warning; there is some graphic content here that some viewers may find upsetting. Please watch the entire piece to learn the outcome.
(Spoiler alert; all are fine.)
Captions tell the story, but I left them out of the actual fight sequence so you won't be having to read and watch at the same time. I feel it is self explanatory but read below to learn more about it.
Rick and I have been photographing loons in New Hampshire for over a decade. We not only go kayak the ponds/lakes and photograph these amazing animals, but we sit for protracted amounts of time just being with them and observing their behavior. I caught this footage but I can assure you that neither Rick nor I have ever seen anything like this before. Ever. Sure, the occasional loon argument, confrontation, and even fight. But they are usually over before a decent photo/video can be taken. A penguin display and some wing walking shots are usually the extent of it.
This is exactly how this day went down, from my early arrival at the pond where I found that the loons had just hatched their chicks. So these chicks are brand new.
Before I go on any further I must make a correction; in the video I believed it to be the female who was fighting because of the leg bands (freeze frame showed them) but that's apparently not the case because only the male can yodel, it has to be the male who fought and whose voice was damaged. So the leg band information I was given was wrong. It is indeed the MALE fighting here. Anyway, sorry for that. But still, read on and enjoy/share!
Not long after I found the family, a rogue loon came in. This happens often. These scouts are quite often simply looking for territory of their own, or a place where they can live out the summer before heading back to the ocean for the winter. But sometimes they are there for more nefarious intent. This was the case; this loon wants to take over the territory of the mated pair.
And get this: it was the FEMALE loon who fought the other bird, so we can only assume it was another female, otherwise the male would have started things. (The way I know the resident male from female is by their leg bands; we have and keep records of them, and help the Loon Preservation Committee in NH by documenting them yearly.
Watch as the male is beside himself when the fight goes down. He doesn't know what to do, the splashing you hear is him penguin dancing and trying to distract the intruder from his mate. But the two are locked in strangleholds. It is brutal. And loon bones are not hollow as most bird's bones are, they are solid. So those wing blows count for something.
Please watch to the conclusion after the second day, as well as hear how damaged the female's vocal cord is after a week. I don't know that she'll ever recover her voice.
Nature is amazing, and there is always something to learn from it. If we just wait and watch long enough. (Brutal, yes but then so are humans.)
Thank you for watching.
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