Loon-atics

Until I moved to Minnesota several years ago, I had never heard ducks called "loons." To me, ducks are ducks, even if they're swans or mallards or loons. If they reside in water, eat bread that's thrown to them, and peck at each other, they're simply ducks. It might be insensitive or ignorant, but I don't spend a lot of time with ducks, thus I don't have a huge interest in studying the species and differentiating amongst them (I know you're thinking it's possible that I have the same feeling toward humans, but I don't - cats, dogs, birds, yes - humans, no!).

But today, I drove past this little lake and the ducks were acting crazy. I had checked the weather in the morning, and I knew a cold front was coming through, but I thought it was insane that the ducks could tell. The wind was picking up as stopped to watch, and the ducks knew, deep down in their highly evolved selves, that something was happening; they could sense a change in the weather. They chased the kind people feeding them bread, pecking at their hands and feet. They darted around in the water like I had never seen before. Now, I'm pretty certain that special breed has earned their name "Loon."