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Wildlife Day: All About Loons

The aquatic bird, the loon, doesn’t spend a lot of time in Iowa, but loons do pass through twice a year as they migrate from the Gulf of Mexico to northern waters and back again.

During this hour of Talk of Iowa, Charity Nebbe talks with wildlife biologist Jim Pease and longtime loon watcher Mike Meetz about these remarkable creatures and what they can tell us about our changing planet.

Loons have four distinct calls that they use to communicate with their families and other loons. They also do something called night chorusing, which Meetz terms, “the symphony of the north.”

Pease agrees, saying that it’s the song, “that identifies the north woods, that wilderness experience, that wild place of the north that many of us so crave."

Lindsey Moon is IPR's Senior Digital Producer
Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa