By Stan Tekiela
Nature never stops to amaze me! After 40 years of field work, capturing events and species in nature with my camera and audio recordings, it is tempting to think you have seen it all or worse yet, know it all. But Mother Nature is always showing me that no one person can know it all or have seen or experienced everything. Understanding that Mother Nature is too complicated and diverse to ever completely understand is the first step to having a deeper understanding of nature.
For over 20 years I have been spending upwards of 4 weeks straight on my boat photographing and studying the nesting, egg laying, chick hatching and raising of Common Loon babies. I log countless hours on the water with about a dozen nesting pairs of loons, so it is tempting to feel like I have seen it all. That was until last week.
The Common Loon (Gavia immer) is a large aquatic bird and is a symbol of the Northwoods and lakes of some northern states such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont and Maine. The adults in breeding plumage are a stunning black and white combination that shines an iridescent green or blue when seen in direct sunlight. The males and females have the same plumage and are often difficult to tell apart. The male is anywhere from 10-20 percent larger than the female. The male has a larger, more squared off head and a thicker/heavier bill than the female. Sometimes it is so difficult to tell them apart you need to see the two adults sitting side by side in order to perceive the differences.
Loons return to the lakes they were hatched or to where they were successful in nesting the year before. Courtship between the pair is subtle, without any exaggerated activities. The female chooses the nest site. The nest is often on the edge of the shoreline, usually in thick vegetation. A pile of last year’s aquatic vegetation serves as the nest site.
It is not uncommon for loons to nest on small islands or to take advantage of human-made nesting platforms. Amazingly these human-made floating platforms are preferred over natural shoreline nesting locations.
The Common Loon only nests once per season. They lay only 2 eggs, which they incubate for nearly a month. As soon as the chicks hatch, they leave the nest and are swimming around with the parents. So, it is typical to see a pair of loons with 2 tiny chicks. The babies are so small and are often prayed upon by predators such as Snapping Turtles, Muskie, Northern Pike and even Bald Eagles. About two or three weeks after the young hatch, it is very common to see adults with just one chick.
About 50 percent of the hatchlings will make it to one year of age. That is about average and works out mathematically in the long run considering how long the adults will live and how many times they will reproduce in their lifetime.