R2B is right - I have heard from many reliable sources that loons are more community-oriented, calling out to one another as a means of "checking in" or taking roll call. What I've heard from their calls also supports it - I hear one call, and then others at distant locations respond. I had also heard that the chatter is a threat alert or distress call, which also relays from loon to loon over several miles until the "Stand down" comes. I have heard this, too, in the loon calls. I have never heard what sounded like two loons fighting. However, I have heard the sound of loons coming from the same location as ducks in distress, and have read that loons do attack ducks and their eggs.
Last fall I saw one example of a feisty loon. A bald eagle dive-bombed it on the water, and as baldy swooped down the loon reared up... the exchanged voices in a less-than-friendly tone, and then the eagle regained altitude and disappeared.
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