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Common Loon

Status Common transient, fairly common in summer and winter. Breeds. After wintering on the sea, it appears on lakes as soon as they are free of ice, although a few non-breeders remain on salt water. Adults and juveniles begin to leave the lakes about mid-September. There are definite migrations along the coast: north largely between mid-March and late April, and south between mid-September and late November.

Description Length: 70-90 cm. Adults in summer: Head and neck blackish with greenish gloss; narrow patches of white on throat and sides of lower neck. Back black, conspicuously checkered with white. Underparts white. Bill black. Adults in winter and juveniles: Upperparts dark gray; underparts white. Winter adults have bills paler than those of summer adults, juveniles' bills are even paler; darkest on ridge of upper mandible.

Breeding Nest: On the ground, usually composed of coarse, decayed vegetable matter and placed near the edge of the water, although sometimes eggs are deposited on a bare gravel beach in a slight depression scraped out by the bird. As a safety measure against predators, islands are chosen as nesting sites. All 21 nests I have examined were located on islands in freshwater lakes, and all but one were close to the water's edge; the exception was placed about 4 m from the water at an elevation of 50 cm.

Eggs: 1-3, usually 2; varying in colour from olive-brown to olive-green; sometimes plain but usually sparsely dotted with blackish brown spots. Some typical egg dates, all at Trout Lake, Annapolis County, are 25 May 1925, two fresh eggs; 6 June 1927, two eggs slightly incubated; and 13 June 1928, two eggs about one-third incubated. Chicks leave the nest very soon after hatching. Usually not more than one pair occupies any given small lake. However, at Porters Lake, a small body of water in Digby County, I found two nests on 14 July 1922 less than 100 m apart. They were similarly located at the water's edge on the shores of two adjacent islands and faced each other across a narrow channel. One contained two heavily incubated eggs; the other, one egg and one newly hatched chick.

The lake was said to contain unusually large numbers of yellow perch (Perca flavescens), which suggests that easy availability of food may have been a factor in inducing the two sets of parents to depart from the norm. On 14 August 1937 two half-grown young were seen at Trout Lake, Annapolis County, accompanied by an adult. As my canoe approached to within 150 m, the young dived and were not seen to resurface. The parent bird, feigning injury (even at that late date), flapped off over the surface but made no outcry as is the custom when the young are smaller.

During August 1938, on three occasions, the adults were seen at this lake, widely separated, each followed by one of the half-grown twins, which indicates the sharing of parental responsibility. A young loon perhaps ten days old was caught and banded at the same lake on 23 June 1923. Four months later on 27 October it was found dead, caught by the neck in a fisherman's seine at salt water off Gold River, Lunenburg County, approximately 70 km south of where it had been banded.

Range Breeds in North America from Alaska and southern Baffin Island, south to northern United States; also in Greenland and Iceland. Winters along the coast from southern parts of its breeding range south to the Gulf of Mexico, and in parts of Europe.

Remarks To observe this bird at its best, one should go in summer to its home on any one of the hundreds of picturesque lakes that grace the wilderness regions of the interior. Here, where dark evergreens mingle with white birch and aspen, and reflect their beauty on the clear waters, one will be sure to find a pair of loons. Many delightful hours may be spent watching them perform their daily routine, particularly when accompanied by their two dusky offspring, whose agility is as often surprising as it is amusing.

Sometimes in the small hours of the night one may be startled when the stillness is broken by the birds' weird, tremulous calls; the long, wavering crescendos set the woodlands ringing with their echoes. When this wild cry was given on one occasion in broad daylight, a sleepy Barred Owl answered angrily from its seclusion as though protesting being awakened by the sound. I have always believed the loon's ecstatic vocal outpourings are a display associated with mating.

Because of the far-aft position of the loon's "propellers," the bird is extremely awkward on land and in fact unable to fly directly therefrom. It heads into the wind when taking off from the water, and its feet patter along the surface for some distance, as though it were running, before it becomes fully airborne. Once in the air its flight is strong, swift and direct. When seen in flight it has a "hunchback" appearance that provides a good field mark.

Loons feed almost wholly on fishes they pursue and capture underwater, probably taking those species most easily caught. Their feeding destroys immense numbers of coarse fishes that are known enemies of young trout and salmon, and therefore any harm loons do is counterbalanced by this service.

It is illegal under both federal and provincial statutes to kill or injure a loon.