Loons do come ashore but only to nest. With legs positioned behind their balance point, loons have great difficulty walking or even standing. It is not unusual for loons to support some of their weight on land with their chests. The red is caused by a pigment in the retina that filters light when loons dive beneath the water's surface and allows for sight. It is impossible to determine the sex of a loon without observing its internal organs.
Loons migrate south and east shortly before ice covers the lakes.
Exactly where they go is still not fully determined, although it is generally believed loons winter somewhere along the southern Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. In late autumn, generally well before the great freeze, loons congregate on large lakes and fly south together. Young and immature loons are believed to spend two or three years in coastal waters before making their first trip back to the North Country. Loons are territorial birds and generally only one pair is found on each lake, except for very large bodies of water where several pairs inhabit the lake. Research conducted by Wisconsin Project Loon Watch indicates that loons inhabit bodies of water as small as nine acres.