My dad asked the same question about penguins. I would imagine loons taste similar to a goose.
Some people spend large coin to eat endangered animals. So I sincerely appreciate these conservation efforts by TLSguy and others. The more 'common' these animals become the less of an exotic treat they become.
Geese are vegetarian and eat no fish.
You can't eat the ducks round here as they eat fish and taste dreadful. You have to go into the Dakotas to get could duck where they have a selections of grains to feed on.
Talking of penguins, the loon is a close relative of the penguin. When they stand up out of the water the can look very similar to penguins.
We had to rescue the raft today. We had a drought all fall and winter. Until recently the federal dam was open on Leech lake as the Mississippi river was so low. We have had quite a lot of cool wet weather of late, and the Mississippi reached flood stage at Aiken and so discharge from the Federal dam where sharply reduced.
We had real washout this holiday weekend, with around four inches of rain Saturday night. We had rain Saturday and yesterday and another big storm last night.
I have never seen the lake come up so fast. The loon raft was listing severely this morning.
We has no choice but to boat out to the raft. I was warned the loon would put up a fight, but the loon politely got off the nest with no fuss, and stayed close by.
The raft was being pulled under by the anchor chains, especially the stern one, due to the rising water. We pulled up the anchors five or six feet. The stress may have damaged a weld in the port pontoon and there was some water in it. I was able to pump it out with an electric pump after removing the drain plug on that pontoon. I had made a urethane float before heading out. We were able to place this right under the deck of the raft.
There were two nice large eggs in the raft, and they had not got wet fortunately.
When we pulled away from the raft, the loon went right back in.
We have three nesting pairs in the lake this year. We have had only two nesting pairs for as long as most people can remember. The other two pairs have natural nests, unfortunately one of those nests has been flooded by the high water and the loons are off the nest.
The other one I think will make it, as long as the water does not rise much more.
We did have a loon killed on Benedict a little over a month ago.
Mantrap Loon M9 that had a radio transmitter installed last fall came down to Benedict Lake, most likely for warmer water, as the loon's temperature was a little low.
Somehow a fight ensued, which I witnessed. A fierce battle ensued with two loons chasing each other round the lake most of the day, at a high rate of speed. Much faster than any boat on the lake. The take off speed of loons is around 70 mph and they need at least a mile of runway. So they can move very fast across water at times.
Anyhow loon M9 was killed and the body retrieved by the DNR. There where puncture wounds to the head, matching the sharp bill of a loon.
Loons are very territorial, and I suspect this was the basis of the fierce fight, but who knows.
