Recently, we were boating with friends and came upon an adult loon with a loon chick on its back. It was incredible how close we were able to get to them! After 20 years of watching the loons on our lake, I’d only seen this “piggyback” ride in pictures, not in person. This kind of awe and appreciation for what we have here never gets old and it brought on a discussion about loons in general. Being the romantic-minded person that I am, I’ve always swooned over the notion that loons mate for life. It’s something you hear people say out loud as they put their hand on their heart with respect. This particular night, however, my friend Jim informed me that a recent study, where they banded loons has shown that loons DO NOT mate for life. He’d read about it in the latest “Wisconsin Natural Resources” magazine. I didn’t hear anything else he said after that because all I could hear was a loud popping noise. It was the sound of my bubble bursting. – Wanda Boldon