Mimicking animal noises is a skill that most of us have dabbled with, beginning with early childhood attempts to “moo” like a cow and “woof” like a dog.
Eventually, some of us even try luring in game animals by grunting like a moose or gobbling like a turkey.
But a 12-year-old who lives on Upper Shin Pond has done something that’s much more impressive. He has mastered the haunting call of the loon, using nothing but his mouth as an instrument.
On Monday a video captured by Beth Enochs started making the rounds on Facebook. On that clip, George Ellis entertains a group of family friends by tilting his head back and channeling his inner loon.
The results are uncanny. George makes a pitch-perfect loon call that will leave you certain that there’s a real, live loon hiding nearby.
George’s dad, Jon Ellis, said his son has been displaying his vocal talents for years.
“He calls everything,” Ellis said with a chuckle. “Bigfoot. Moose. Everything. But his expertise is definitely the loon. He’s been doing it on his own forever.”
George said he’s not sure when he learned to talk to the loons, but living on a lake certainly helped.
“I’ve been hearing them all my life,” he said. “One day I tried it, and I did it.”
And George’s skills aren’t just a parlor trick. He says the loon call can pay off for actual loons on Upper Shin Pond, where he lives.
“I talk back to [loons that are calling] to confuse the eagles so they can’t get the babies,” George explained. “And it works.”
George said he’s working on his moose call, and admits that his dad is correct: He’s dabbling with a bigfoot call, which he describes as “a weird scream.”
Jon Ellis said George has always loved animals and can mimic many different bird noises. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if his son ends up working with animals in the future, perhaps as a game warden.
But he’s not sure how long George’s loon call will be so pitch-perfect.
“We tease him and tell him, when you go through puberty, you’re probably going to lose some of this stuff, but I don’t know,” Jon Ellis said. “But we’ve done some research, and they say if you keep using those vocal chords, you keep them.”
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