Loon joins scuba divers for a swim

[AandA]

We heard from friends that there was a video shown on KARE 11 news the other day of a loon swimming with scuba divers.  I checked out the KARE 11 website and found this link with a brief article and link to the video:


Does anyone have any additional info.?  Curtis, are you out there??  ??? If so, tell us more!! :o :o

Art and I were wondering which lake and where on the lake this happened.  We recently had several close encounters with 2 loons at the beaver lodge on the west end of Huntington. The loons did not appear to be upset by our presence (no anxious calls from the loons that I've experienced when accidently getting too close to a nest and/or young loon) and were busy diving for fish while we were diving. We had multiple underwater sightings (and no one had a camera  :'( )When we surfaced they swam quite close to us, sometimes within arm's reach  ;D. It was really cool!! 

[arcFlash]

I'm guessing it's the same bird that bit a fellow divers fin in Pennington two weeks ago with my group. The article reports a Crosby Mine but doesn't give the name.

The one that past me circled within feet and then swam off.

[lahrcm]

Hello, Curtis here.  I saw the loon on a few different dives.  3 different dives. Each time we dove from Diamond Cove on Hopkins.  I have a second video other than what was shown on Kare 11,  you can see it on youtube here....

[Roger Southwick]

That is very cool.  Is this behavior common for loons, or is this one especially loony?  Seems awfully bold.

[DiverQueen]

Methinks I saw a handfull of some sort of food at one point!  But it's a cool sight to see those amazing diving birds under the water!

I had that pleasure on the 23rd of September up in Portsmouth.  At about 23-35 feet, one of my buddies pointed past me to my left and I saw a loon chasing after fish.  It looked at us, then went back to it's hunting!  COOL 8)

[lahrcm]

I don't know if it's normal behavior.  We didn't have any food to offer it.  It was fun to watch it hunt crayfish though.  It seemed to be a crayfish fin finding machine.