Although I am not an expert on loons, I am very interested in them and have done a lot of reading about their habits.
As I understand it, the New England loons, for the most part, winter in the ocean mainly from about Portsmith, NH down to the coast of New Jersey as a southern limit. Most winter from the Ipswich River, MA to Block Island, RI.
The loons from the great lakes have a much longer migration. They tend to winter in the Gulf of Mexico or near the southeast US coast. There are some very interesting articles about how they seem to read the winds and get from their winter to their summer homes in a very short period of time.
With those migration patterns, I would guess that loons might rest in NC on their way to the great lakes. I do not think they would hang around that long.
Again, I am no expert in this, but I have done a lot of research on this great bird. I also observe them during the winter in the Ipswich River area. They are gray during winter and are not as good looking as they are in the summer.
R2B
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