I always thought loons were pretty cool animals. Truthfully, I knew nothing about them other than that they were Minnesota's state bird. As a Minnesotan, I guess that made them pretty sweet.

When I was a little girl, I remember seeing them and being proud that they were our state bird because of how serene and beautiful they were. They are solitary birds, and seeing more than two at a time is rare.

I never thought of loons as being anything other than awesome.

Man oh man, has my opinion changed.

First of all, loons have red eyes. If that isn't a sign that something is wrong with them, continue reading because there is more that marks them as being (possibly) evil spawn.

I was just told recently by a friend that when male loons fight over territory, one will dive under water and surprise its opponent with a spear to the chest. Now, this in and of itself is typical ferocious animal behavior. But the loon is supposed to represent Minnesota, a state that is nationally renowned for being nice.

Loons are not "Minnesota nice."

Then, there is my personal experience with loons that is probably the base for the opposition I feel towards them. I work at a summer camp, and one night I was camping with a group of younger girls at a campsite near a lake. As the sun set and night set in, my co-counselor and I sent the kiddies to bed and settled down in our own tent.

About twenty minutes into bedtime, these loons started partying on the lake. Their calls, I kid you not, sounded like yodeling on steroids. If that wasn't enough, the yodeling didn't end for what seemed like hours. (I now admit that it was probably not hours, but closer to a single hour. However, for the sake of the story, I exaggerate.)

One of my campers, probably the sweetest one of the bunch, crawled out of her tent and into the counselor tent. She complained of not being able to sleep because of the loons. I, too, was struggling to fall asleep, so I invited her to sit in our tent for a short while. As soon as she had sat down and made herself comfortable, it started to downpour.

I was not about to send an eleven year old kid out into torrential downpour just so she could get back to her own tent and get everyone wet. So, I had her use my sleeping bag and we waited out the storm. The rain lasted, and this time I'm not exaggerating, for hours. I sat in my clothes with no sleeping bag and no sleep for most of the night. I was miserable to say the least. At around 3:30am, I finally woke her up and told her to get back to her own tent so that I could actually get some sleep. She complied immediately, and continues to apologize to me to this day about that night.

So the way I see it, loons were to blame for that night of misery. I have never looked at a loon the same way again.