Photo by Nat Carmichael
Looking for Loons
in all the Right Places
T
he last time common loons nested in Illinois was in 1892, in Lake County. But the unique birds with their eerie tremolos can still be seen and heard each spring during migration as they rest and feed in Lake Michigan, deep inland lakes in the Chicago area and large reservoirs downstate. “Seeing a loon in March is the perfect antidote for cabin fever,” says Jeff Sanders, a Skokie resident who leads a Lake-Cook Audubon Society (LakeCookAudubon.org) loon trip for the public at the end of March. “Loons are so majestic. They seem to have a calmness about them,” he says. The loons are flying north in spring from southern coastlines to their breeding spots near northern Canadian lakes. The Chicago region is in their migratory pathway. Common loons (Gavia immer), called “great northern divers” in Europe, can be identified fairly easily because they are larger than other waterfowl such as mallard ducks. They sit low in the water and in spring, are wearing their breeding plumage. Both male and female have an almost iridescent, greenish-black, angular head, red eyes, white necklace and black-and-white checkerboard back. They also have a daggerlike bill for spearing fish when they dive underwater. When they dive, they return to a 44
Chicago
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A common loon stretches its wings on a lake in the Chicago region. completely different spot from where they started. Loons are not at all adept on land because their feet are so closely positioned to their bodies. That helps them propel underwater to get their prey of fish. Although most birds have hollow bones, the loon has some solid bones that help them while fishing underwater. However, the solid bones also make it more difficult for the loon to take off from water. They need some room to flap and skim as if on a runway before becoming airborne. Loons can typically be seen in this region about the middle of March through mid-April, with some lingering into midIn fall, common loons lose their spectacular spring plumages. This photo was taken in Illinois in fall.
May and an occasional individual spending the summer. But they haven’t nested here in more than 100 years. Loons have not only disappeared as breeding species in Illinois, but also Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Birds.Cornell.edu). In the Midwest and eastern U.S., loons continue to nest in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. They require large, deep lakes with islands for nesting and do not tolerate human disturbance. Lead poisoning from fishing sinkers and mercury-laden pollution emitted by power plants negatively affect the loons’ breeding success. It’s too cold to get out the motorboats in March and April in the Chicago region, and that gives loons flying north a place to feed and rest for a bit. When the ice begins to thaw on lakes, that’s the time to look, according to Sanders. “The best time is when at least a quarter or half of the lake is still ice,” he says. “It keeps the water calmer. There are not a lot of waves. It means the loons have just come in they’re not in a hurry to leave when they lakes are half frozen.” Locally, loons can sometimes be seen singly, in pairs or even by the dozens on Diamond Lake, in Mundelein, Pistakee Lake, in Fox Lake, Bangs Lake, in Wauconda, and other deep bodies of water populated with
Photo by Dan Kassebaum
by Sheryl DeVore
