Evers puts down the binoculars and picks up a long-handled net. By the time the project is complete, approximately 60 more loons will call Massachusetts home. Common Loons (Gavia immer) nest on lakes across Canada and the northern U.S., but every winter they disperse, many to the open ocean where they're difficult to track. Some loons may mate for life. Led by James Paruk, a senior scientist in BRI’s Center for Loon Conservation, the group … Much of the day is pretty uneventful, if not outright boring, they admit. Common loons are larger than the other loon species, according to the Animal Diversity Web (ADW). — and that’s what gets imprinted on their brains,” he says. Evers signals to his colleague, Chris Persico, to turn on a machine that plays bird sounds. Paruk scans the area with the spotlight. Savoy peels back the netting atop the pen, and with a gentle scooping motion, captures the bird. Common Loons are a classic bird of the North Woods lakes. Loons can live for more than 30 years, and rarely stray far from their birthplace to breed, even if there’s a lake 10 or 15 miles away with plenty of habitat. By the government’s final accounting, the spill killed 1,174 adult birds — including 531 common loons. It is likely that they return to the same area each year. Consider the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park, she says. But it wasn't until a devastating oil spill killed hundreds of loons off the coast of Massachusetts that he finally got a chance to test the theory. Closer by, one of the chick’s parents emits a series of tremolo calls, the wavering sound that means, “I’m alarmed and threatened, so stay back.” Evers hoots some more; Persico plays the wail call again. Since then, they’ve been slow to come back. They have very interesting vocalizations, and their call carries for miles,” says Massachusetts State Ornithologist Andrew Vitz. An estimated 98,000 gallons of oil spilled into the bay, and much of it washed up on 100 miles of coastline in southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. Still blinded by the light, it frantically turns its head back and forth like it’s not quite sure where to go. So just bringing loons to lakes in Massachusetts won't work to re-establish the population; the birds will always migrate back to the place they consider home. Not really. Maine, by contrast, has about 1,700. With the chick still frozen in the spotlight, Persico cues up another wail call. Loon calls have been identified into four classifications: Wail, Tremolo, yodel and hoot. Common Loon, Rice Lake State Park, Minnesota. Also, because loons now eat saltwater prey, they ingest large amounts of saltwater as well. Throughout the day, Purtell helped transport oily, distressed loons to a cleanup station where volunteers washed them with Dawn dish soap. Loons are highly territorial creatures. Loons display high territory fidelity, and individuals typically return to the same breeding lake year after year. One of its parents, meanwhile, continues to tremolo frantically. All five species of loons migrate to warmer areas around the Gulf of Mexico and on the east and west coasts of North America for the nonbreeding season, and return to northern lakes to breed when the ice melts in spring. By now, the sun is peeking out above the treeline, and a thick mist evaporates off the water. The Loon Preservation Committee live streams two common loon nests each year, beginning shortly after ice-out and continuing well into July. Loons are easily disturbed during the nesting season and prefer to nest on lakes where there is little human activity. Some nights they caught one on the first try; other times they chased a skittish bird around for hours before giving up. After sundown, many North Woods lakes reverberate with the echoes of loon wails and yodels and tremolos (which writer John McPhee called “the laugh of the deeply insane”). They can be very vocally active with nocturnal choruses. Just after sunrise on a foggy November morning, BRI biologist Lucas Savoy stands in a small boat and peers into one of the loon pens. To a loon, however, the call is just a call; the bird-equivalent of “Where are you? She looks healthy, he says. Evers picks up the net and gets ready. Those without a territory spend their summers in a “neutral” area of a lake, waiting for an opportunity to attack — necropsies often reveal scars or serious wounds inflicted by the sharply-pointed bills of other loons. “They’re a large bird, and their plumage is dramatic. But everyone is happy about [the prospect] and it’s so awesome to hear.”. Right there, there’s one.”. Lead poisoning resulting from the ingestion of lead fishing tackle is the leading cause of documented common loon mortality in New Hampshire. However, mates probably don't winter or migrate together and return to the same lake independently. The breeding range includes Alaska and much of Canada south to portions of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Then they waited. Elizabeth James-Perry, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe and a former marine scientist with its Tribal Historic Preservation Office, couldn’t agree more. But occasionally someone will walk by and ask what in the world those cage-things are in the water. Biologists suspect that loons return to the same general area where they were born, often returning to their very own birth lake.

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