LOON ARRIVAL! Yesterday, our hawk-eyed guide Zach came in excited at the end of his tour. The loons had finally made a big landing. And horned grebes most everywhere. And lots of eagles overhead. Sounds like winter waterbird season on the lake to me, the time of year I wait for with great anticipation. I’ll be out this afternoon, surveying our new visitors. They may not be ‘keepers’ just yet. Fall migration goes on for the next two months, and we only know how many loons and other winter waterbirds are ‘our’ birds, the birds that stay all winter, once we do a January count. What we do know is that it just gets better from here on. The winter birds transform the experience of being on Jocassee. They are the life of the lake for the next few months. Silence, serenity, the call of the loon. Jocassee during the season of the loon. ~ B