Follow-up of Loon on Ice

The Common Loon juvenile that was rescued from Lake Eligo in Greensboro in late December ended up having a deformed wing as the wing would not lay flat. I took the loon to the Lamoille Valley Vet Service in Hyde Park the next morning after the rescue where an x-ray revealed a healed broken wrist from many months ago, possibly from a boat hit. It is likely the loon could not maintain sustained flight, thus our normal procedure of releasing the loon on Lake Champlain was not the best option. The loon could easily live out a long, healthy life on the ocean if we could get it there. Some loon volunteers off handedly said they’d be willing to taxi the loon to the coast before the vet exam, so I followed up with some phone calls and found some drivers willing to spend New Year’s eve in Portland Maine for a mini vacation. This loon along with another loon that crash-landed on a street in Morrisville that morning both were successfully released on Casco Bay New Year’s eve. The Morrisville loon likely mistook wet pavement for water; it too was likely trying to make a quick escape from the local waters that have recently frozen over.

During this first week of January, two more loons were spotted in small open holes of water surrounded by ice on Crystal Lake in Barton and Caspian Lake in Greensboro. Local residents observed both loons successfully take off from very short runways hours after calling me. We don’t know why loons stay so long into the winter, as most adult loons migrate to the New England coast in late October or early November. Some loons, especially chicks, stay into December. What are the triggers to cause a loon chick to finally leave? Is it cold weather, ice formation, other loons migrating through, or something else? Warm early winters might be one reason loons stay later, but even in a normal winter, we would likely see the same problem of loons becoming iced-in in late November and December. This year we have monitored 6 loons with ice around them, much more than the usual 1 or 2 that are reported every other year.

It takes a lot of time, phone calls, and occasionally resources to monitor and rescue loons in this situation, and some would question whether we should do anything at all. Population modeling has shown that adult survivorship has a major impact on the overall loon population; losing a few chicks has less of an impact. But the effort made to save the Eligo and Morrisville loons last week made a difference for these two. Thanks to everyone who helped make the difference.
Eric Hanson