Category Archives: Long Lake creatures

Nesting and not-nesting-yet Loons

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2loons-nest_lowresThis pair of Common Loons is nesting on the west side of the island that’s near the public access. Kudos to them this year for picking a pretty good spot. Usually the nest is on the east side of the island, where there’s a constant flow of boats coming and going. This island is close to the shore. So it seems like a determined dog or raccoon with a taste for eggs could wreck havoc on the nest. But it’s been a successful spot for them in the past. Once the eggs are laid, and there will only be 1 or 2 of them, the chicks hatch in 26 to 29 days.

Long Lake’s “Loon Ranger” has set out a buoy letting everyone know to steer clear of the nest. Loons need us to leave them alone while they’re nesting. If loons are poking their head up from the nest in an alert position, or if they are squashed down with their head low to the water–those are signs we’re too close. And if they leave the nest or if their mate is nearby vocalizing, they’re telling us to move further away.

Long Lakers are pretty good about giving “our” loons lots of space to do their thing. And we pretty much do what’s right. But, just in case you need to remind anyone to leave the loons alone, they are migratory birds and that means they’re protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Act. The Act prohibits the harassment or killing of loons or chicks (or messin’ with their eggs…OK, the Act doesn’t put it exacty that way). It’s also illegal to possess loon feathers, eggs, nests, or entire birds.

The male loon selects the nest site. He may select the same nest the pair used the year before, just spruced up a bit. The pair will build the nest together, usually in late May or early June. They’ll mound up dead plant material and then smooth out a bowl shape with their bodies. The nest will be right on the water’s edge so that the loon can basically have an underwater approach to the nest.

This next pair was busy building their nest in Ghost Bay on May 24th, just north of the beaver lodge. They were both pulling up mouthfulls of gunk and weeds from the lake bottom and tossing it on the shore. You can see one of them with his beak stuffed with foliage. But they seem to have abandoned the effort. It really wasn’t the best spot anyway. Hopefully they will find their way back to Belly Button Island, where so many loons have successfully nested in the past.

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We’re hoping this second pair of loons get their nesting act together soon.

And let’s not talk about the Canada Geese. We spent the weekend chasing them off our lawn. Three pair. One with two goslings left from their brood. One with five goslings growing like a house afire. And one pair with twelve (that’s not a typo) twelve goslings all in full eat-the-grass and poop-out-the-green-tootsie-rolls mode. We’re bringing out the coyote decoy. But it won’t work. It never does. Still, I keep trying. Headley, the gator decoy never worked either. This past weekend, I tried barking at them from inside the house. Good thing our immediate neighbors weren’t around to hear me.

Merlin visit

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We noticed this guy when he swooped down to the seed-feeder and then chased after a chickadee. We definitely root for the little chickadees and, in fact, think they should be our state bird since they don’t bug out in the winter like the Robins do. The chickadee escaped unharmed.

The Merlin sat on this branch in a nearby white pine, focused on our feeder pole. All activity ceased at the feeders. No chickadees. No nuthatches. No finches, even though the feeders had been Grand Central Station before the Merlin arrived. The Merlin sat on the branch for about 10 minutes. Around then, a Blue Jay started pestering him. The jay flew very close to the Merlin, landing on either side of him on the same branch. The jay seemed to hit the Merlin at least once. Apparently, with his “cover” blown, the Merlin decided to go find better hunting grounds.

We initially misidentified this Merlin as a Sharp-shinned Hawk. The two birds are similarly sized, and do look somewhat alike. But, apparently, the Merlin’s mustache stripe is a give-away. Sharpies are not mustachioed. And they have a longer tail and a less elongated body. Merlins are small birds of prey–ranging only between 9.5 and 11.5 in length.

According to the Cornell ornithology website, Merlins have two modes: scanning areas patiently from a tree, and flying at top speed in pursuit of small birds. We were fortunate to see both modes. Merlins are known to hunt in pairs at times. One Merlin will flush a flock of waxwings and the other comes in for the kill, taking advantage of the confusion.

When nesting, Merlins are squatters. They use an abandoned nest from a crow, raven, hawk or magpie.

Loons: bathing, preening, socializing

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There’s a pair of loons in lower Long Lake. There’s another pair with some activity on the northwest side of Belly Button Island–where the loons have been nesting the last few years.

The pair in the lower lake were about 30 feet apart when Steve observed a lot of sprucing-up going on. They were nibbling at their feathers–which is a loon’s way of getting rid of any damaged ones. In between nibbling and preening, they would submerge and splash like crazy. That “bathing” activity gets rid of the preening debris.

Then some behavior started that seemed partly aimed at each other in addition to personal grooming. There was a good deal of shaking and stretching going on. Oh and, as above, imitating the Pillsbury Doughboy‘s belly.

loon_display2_lowresWhen a loon rises out of the water and shakes itself, it’s getting rid of trapped droplets and getting its feathers all nicely smoothed out. Wing stretching like this often ends a bath and preening session. This loon does look mighty fine.

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With this loon’s mate so close by, we wondered if maybe this was also part of re-establishing the pair’s bond. Unless the nests repeatedly fail, loons keep the same mate for many years and sometimes for life. But there isn’t any evidence that they migrate or winter together. So it could be that it was the human equivalent of a long, lonely winter.

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We’re so pleased that the loons have decided to live on Long Lake again this summer. One nest will likely be on the island across from the public access. The other looks like it will be on the northwest side of the big island a/k/a Belly Button. Our local Loon Ranger will have a sign up on the big island soon. Let’s be sure to respect the loons’ nesting area. If all goes well, by around Father’s Day we’ll see the loon chicks riding on their parents’ backs.

The loons arrived!

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Ice out was April 12th. At about 4 in the morning on April 17th, Steve awoke to the tremolo flight calls of the loons. Some of the rest of the Long Lake feathered flotilla also started making a bit of a ruckus. The Mergansers are here. And Black Ducks. And way, way too many Canada Geese.

Loons landed on Long Lake and then began all manner of loony tunes. They went through most of their repertoire of hoots and yodels and wails. The distinctive wail is the call that loons use to figure out where their loon buddies are. Listen to their vocalizations here, on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site.

The Loons arrived and are fishing for the little fish. Shelly the Great Dane and Jeff, her human, made a cameo appearance (see the upper left corner above). They are already out fishing for the big fish.

Here’s a few more shots of one of the loons.

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Pileated pair

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It was 16 degrees below zero and the suet feeders were empty. This pair of pileated woodpeckers landed on the trunk of one of the tall trees between the lake and our front room windows and started bobbing around. Steve imagined they were saying “get out here and fill these feeders ‘cuz we’re hungry and cold.”

He bundled up, filled the feeders, and of course these big guys are shy and so they’d flown off. But when he came back inside, the pair quickly flew back and stayed at the feeders for a good long time.

The male is the one with the red mustache on the log feeder. The female is at the paddle feeder. Pileateds have wingspans from 26 to 30 inches. The adults are 16 to 19 inches from crest to tail. We’re happy to give them some help getting through the winter.