Days of Our Loons

By Vicki Browne
Iron County Lakes & Streams Partnership
If a loon had to choose between a long-time mate and a long-time lake, the odds strongly favor the lake. According to a 2016 post to the travel blog mynorth.com, loons have ‘site fidelity’. Yes, mates reunite, but more so because they have returned to the same lake or reservoir.
Several news stories in 2021 celebrated ABF and Fe, a pair of banded and tagged loons, because they were together again at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge for their 25th anniversary. They had successfully fledged 29 loonlets, also called chicks, out of 32 hatched offspring.
During the 2021 summer the couple did not produce young, and in 2022 they separated. Fe, the female, seemed to have gotten their usual nesting pool because ABF was first spotted on the next pool over. As the story unfolded, Fe fled their pool when another couple moved in. Both ABF and Fe spent the summer of 2022 with other partners.
Although Michigan.gov claims that the American robin, our state bird, is the “most known and beloved of all birds in Michigan”, the people of the Upper Peninsula might lean more toward the loon. Its elegant black and white checkered back and misty-morning, haunting calls capture our attention every year.
Loons are one of only three types of birds that have solid bones. The other two are penguins and puffins. This makes them heavier, less buoyant. An adult loon weighs between 9–12 pounds, and their legs are far back on their bodies. This combination of traits allows loons to be impressive swimmers and divers, but incredibly awkward on land.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, loons can dive up to 250 feet and spend up to five minutes under water. Because of their weight, loons need 100–600 feet of waterway to get airborne. This means that if a loon mistakenly lands on land — like a wet, dark-colored, parking lot — they won’t survive without assistance. The best a landed loon can do is scoot along on its belly — a painful and minimally-productive way to move.
Loons are migratory birds. They spend their winters along the Atlantic coast or in the Gulf of Mexico and their summers in Canada, the Northern U.S. and Alaska. Audubon has an interactive site on which you can track their migration — explorer.audubon.org/explore.
The loons have already begun their journey back to us. The greatest proportion are currently coming up the Atlantic coast or making their way north through Alabama and Tennessee. Some have already arrived where lakes have experienced ice out.
Flocks of loons will travel at speeds around 75 miles per hour for hundreds of miles each day. Among loons with tracking devices, the U.S. Geological Survey notes that one loon traveled 670 miles in a day, while another flew 360 miles one day and 505 miles the following day.
They know where to go based on internal orientation with the Earth’s magnetic fields. They also navigate by landmarks, the sun and stars. They migrate in flocks, but when they arrive at their summer lake it’s every loon for himself.
The males arrive first. Each male has a distinct ‘yodel’ based on the lake territory he has claimed. Yodels have an introduction followed by repeated pulses of anywhere from two to five tones. Jay Mager, a biology professor at Ohio Northern University, hypothesizes that the male yodel has three functions: identify the male, signify his willingness to fight for his territory, and establish his fighting ability. If a male moves to a new location, he changes his yodel.
Both males and females ‘wail’ — the haunting, long call that mates use to find one another. Both have a tremolo call they vocalize when agitated, and a hoot they use with their offspring.
A pair of loons will make a nest of reeds and grass on the near shoreline. In May or June the female will produce one, or maybe two eggs that both parents take turns protecting and incubating. Adult loons are prey only for bald eagles, but eggs and chicks are eaten by racoons, ravens, minks, gulls, crows, snapping turtles, skunks, foxes, northern pike and muskies.
Once chicks have hatched, they learn to swim rather quickly but still ride on their parents’ backs for several weeks. They don’t learn to fly for several months and don’t migrate south for almost a month after their parents have departed.
Once they arrive at their winter destination, juveniles stay for three to four years before making their first journey north. They only migrate when they are ready to mate.
For now we wait for the story of our favorite lake’s loons to begin. Will there be romantic drama or territorial take-overs? Will we see successful couples ferrying their fuzzy gray chicks? Stay tuned for the loon song serenades which set the stage for the new season.