Okay, so the other day, I got this weird idea stuck in my head. It started pretty simply.
The Beginning of the Search
We were watching Finding Nemo again with the family. It’s one of those movies you see a bunch of times, right? Anyway, as we were watching, this thought popped into my head: ‘Was there a common loon in that movie?’ I had this distinct, yet fuzzy, memory of seeing one. Maybe during one of the ocean scenes, or near the harbour?
It bugged me. Like an itch I couldn’t scratch. So, I decided, right then and there, I had to figure this out. My practical mission for the afternoon.
Digging In – The Process
First thing I did was grab the remote. I started skipping through scenes, specifically looking for birds.
- Checked the pelican scenes closely. Nigel, he’s obviously a pelican. No loon there.
- Watched the ‘Mine! Mine!’ seagulls sequence. Definitely seagulls. No loons hanging with them.
- Scanned the backgrounds of the wide ocean shots. Lots of fish, coral, water… but no bird that looked like a loon diving.
- Even looked around the dentist’s office window scenes. Still nothing.
I rewound bits, paused it constantly. My family started looking at me funny. ‘What are you doing?’ they asked. ‘Looking for the loon!’ I said. They just shrugged and went back to the movie. I felt a bit obsessed, honestly.
I spent maybe a solid 45 minutes just scrubbing back and forth through the movie. I was so sure I had seen one. I started questioning my own memory. Did I dream it? Did I mix it up with another movie or a documentary I saw last week?
Finding the Answer (or Lack Thereof)
Finally, after getting nowhere with the movie itself, I cheated a little. I paused the movie and just quickly searched online. Typed in something like ‘common loon finding nemo bird’.
And the result? Nope. Apparently, there is no common loon featured in Finding Nemo. All my searching, all that rewinding and pausing… for a bird that wasn’t even in the film.
So, that was my big practical investigation. Found out my memory totally played a trick on me. It was a bit like searching for Nemo himself, I guess – a determined hunt, but in my case, the thing I was looking for wasn’t actually lost in the movie, it was just lost in my head.
Kind of funny when I think about it now. Spent a good chunk of time on a wild loon chase. Oh well, at least I know now, right?
