Enjoy this 40-minute cassette of loon call identification

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Originally published at: Enjoy this 40-minute cassette of loon call identification | Boing Boing

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Loons mate for life

one set per average-sized lake

when I was 14, this cassette had recently come out, along with another recording of just calls

I played it on a boombox. They sang back.

It was really fun.

Alas, someone pointed out that I was telling the loons that another couple was on the lake. If I didn’t stop, they’d probably fly off, losing their home.

I still feel badly about it. I hope I stopped in time.

I can still do a pretty good loon call using my hands as a whistle, fwiw.

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It’s been a while since I enjoyed some loony tunes.

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Back in the 80s you’d have to enlist the help of the police or the phone company to identify a loon call but nowadays we have caller ID.

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And let us not forget these bird call identifications:

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I had the LP. The buttery narration was only on Side 1. Side 2 was lovely.

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“Voices of the Loon”

40 minutes of Donald Trump? No thanks.

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Kind of sounds like an alien planet.

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I remember hearing them call at the conservation area we used to camp at as scouts - before my voice changed i could make those calls in the back of my throat.

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All this is so silly! Birds aren’t real as you should very well know. They’re just some more CIA Kool-Aid.

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I’m reminded of this incredibly moving poem, by Jon Loomis: At the Lake House.

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That tape deck though.

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Exactly:

True loonys:

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I had an early 90’s CD-ROM with an enhanced version (interactive! high-resolution 640x480 images!). From that time when we were so hungry of CD-ROMs to put in our new, super technological CD unit in our computers. Anything legible with a laser was OK.

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To bring this into the 21st century, Cornell makes an app which is basically a Shazam for birds. Once you identify a bird you can play back its songs and calls from their database.

I use it…a lot. Yesterday on my deck I had a “conversation” with 3 different cardinals for like 45 minutes. I recommend the experience.

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Nobody has mentioned that the loon call has been used on loads of pop electro and dance recordings - once you know the sound, it pops up all over the place, notably 808 State’s ‘Pacific State’, and Nicky Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’. It was on the expansion pack for the Emulator II electronic sampler.

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On Golden Pond. You old poop…

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