Welcome to my LOON Multimedia Page!

Common loon on nest at Loon Lake, B.C., (left)  and a wintering Common loon in San Pedro, CA. (right)

NOTE: This is a large webpage, and the images will probably take a few minutes to all completely download, so I apologize for the wait.  For best results on a complete document download, especially for Mac users, you should wait until the entire set of images download before punching the  (sound byte) buttons, but please enjoy yourself and keep reading as the images download one by one!

This page will introduce you to loons with some factual information about the biology and ecology of these very interesting and frequently misunderstood birds, why their status in the environment is very shaky, and what needs to be done to protect them. You'll have an opportunity to play some calls of Common, Pacific, and Red-throated loons that I have recorded in the field, and look at a few of my loon photos.  

Let's start by exploring loons as a species.  Loons are also known as "divers" in the Eastern Hemisphere, in case you're a resident abroad in one of these countries reading this page. Loons are not ducks, nor are they even distantly related (except perhaps for the red-throated loon).  The standard classification places loons in the Order Gaviiformes, with one Family group in that Order- Gaviidae. The newer classification  (chromosome mapping, DNA and egg albumin analyses) by Charles G. Sibley places loons in Order Ciconiiformes, Superfamily Procellarioidea, Family Gaviidae. Pick which method of classification you like; I prefer the latter (loons are, in my opinion, not the "primitive" bird as they were once regarded, but are uniquely highly specialized like no other bird).

Whichever Order you wish to place family Gaviidae in, there are five main species that are recognized- the Common loon or Great Northern diver (Gavia immer), Red-throated loon or Red-throated diver (G. stellata), Yellow-billed loon or White-billed diver (G. adamsii), Pacific loon  (G. pacifica) and Arctic loon (G. arctica), both also known as black-throated divers.

All five species occur here in southern California. However, identifying Arctic loons against Pacific loons is difficult during winter if the white flank patch isn't visible, and every Yellow-bill sighting I had so far lacked a camera present, or poor weather preventing a good photo. Therefore, I am showing the three species that are found most frequently here in southern California during their stay in our coastal waters during the winter and/or maturation period.

Here is a photo of a WINTER PLUMAGE adult Common loon at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, near Huntington Beach, CA., 12/94.

Here is another adult wintering Common loon looking up at me from below a fishing pier at Morro Bay, CA.

The Common loon is the largest-sized loon, measuring 70-90 cm in length, bill tip to retrice tip, and weighing an average of 5.5 kg. Males are slightly larger. In winter, it has a white "notch" midway up its neck, unlike the other two species. The dark feathers on the head go well below the eyes, also unlike the other species. The bill is held fairly level with the water when swimming. Immature common loons (photo to right) are uniformly scalloped on the back, whereas adults are more or less a darker color with a more subtle alternating scalloping at most. Wingbeat frequency is about 3.5-4 bps.

In breeding plumage, the Common loon is black-checkered white on the back with two characteristic neck stripes, and a black head.  The loon in the photo at the beginning of this page was in breeding (summer) plumage. You'll see other breeding plumage Common loons in photos a bit later in this webpage.

The Pacific loon is another common resident wintering loon or maturing loon here along the southern California coast. Here is a photo of a winter-plumage Pacific loon adult at Goleta, CA.

The Pacific loon is a medium-sized loon, measuring about 63 cm long, and weighing around 1200g. Again, males are slightly larger than females. In winter, the bird has no white neck notch as in Commons, just the white-dark border going straight down both sides of the neck. Also there is a faint black "necklace" around the top of the neck of most birds. The eyes lie right on the dark-light border on the face, and the bill is smaller than the Common loon. The head is slightly rounder, too. Wingbeat frequency in flight is around 4-5 bps. As in Common loons, the backs of juveniles tend to be more scalloped than adults, and not as dark.

Now, let's look at a breeding (summer) plumage Pacific loon up close and personal (one I rehabilitated from an oil spill).  If the front of the neck were green instead of purple, it would be an Arctic loon instead.

Finally the Red-throated loon is a third abundant species occurring here in southern California. It can be very abundant in some areas, forming rafts of several hundred off of the coast.  I took this picture on12/97, of a small Red-throated loon raft off of the coast of Pt. Mugu, CA.  The Channel Islands can be seen in the background.

The red-throated loon is the smallest of all the loon species, but just smaller than the Pacific, measuring around 60 cm, weighing 1200g.  The eyes are located entirely within the white featheration on the head, which pulls way back behind the head, there is no notch on the neck, and the small bill is slightly uptilted. Also, there are white speckles on the dark back. Juvenile Red-throats do not have a white space of featheration between the eyes and the dark feathers, as the adult winter birds do. Wingbeat frequency is about 4.5-5 bps, and the tips tend to be lifted higher in the air than the other species, with whiter "flashes" from the light wing linings. The head may be held forward straighter than other loon species in flight. At left is a photo of a wintering Red-throated loon adult I took in Goleta, CA; on the right is another from Morro Bay, CA.

I have not been able to obtain a close enough usable breeding plumage Red-throated loon photo, so I will explain what the breeding plumage looks like. The head and back of the neck would be dark gray, the back is black-brown and speckled with white, and of course, the front of the neck is bright red, instead of white.

Click  to hear the vocalization made by wintering red-throated loons when they are gathered in loose feeding groups or if a loon is flying in to join a group.

Click   to hear a distant wail of a red-throated loon recorded on Georgie Lake, northern Vancouver Is.,  B.C. where several pairs live during the summer.

Loon species occur circumpolar in only the northern hemisphere. As the name by which they were first called implies, they are very proficient divers, staying under water long periods of time, sometimes five minutes or more (in common loons).  Here is a common loon adult diving for crabs in Monterey Bay, CA.

Morphologically, loons to many people may resemble other waterfowl such as ducks or geese, but they are not at all related. They have a long conical bill, which is used to grab fish (not spear them). On the "roof" of the mouth are ridges which point backwards to prevent slippery prey like fish, from slipping back out when caught. Loons have webbing that spans three of the four digits of their feet, and the foot can be several centimeters across when stretched out to allow greater surface area for powerful swimming and diving. The legs are flattened (tightly elliptical), instead of rounded, for better hydrodynamics, and are both set very far back on the bird's body, making it impossible for a loon to walk on land at all. In fact, this is why we here in the Western Hemisphere began calling these birds "loons"- the word "loon" was derived from the Scandinavian word "lum", which translates to "clumsy", referring to how a loon has difficulty moving about on dry land if placed there. When stretched out, the leg and foot resembles a paddle or oar, and the bird uses it as such while swimming or diving by turning the legs at various angles on the up or downstroke. All adults have characteristic bright red eyes. Their bones, unlike most other birds, are solid instead of hollow, probably to make it easier for them to dive for extended periods by decreasing their buoyancy. They can dissolve larger amounts of oxygen in their blood than other birds so they may exhale before dives to increase their body density.

With some exceptions for Red-throated loons, breeding loons build floating nest platforms on freshwater lakes at high latitude locales. The lakes may or may not have large fish populations in them, but one requirement is always definite- a calm, protected area of the lake free of high waves and predation, as well as being easily accessible by the birds from the lake. Loons are absolutely unable to walk on dry land, because their legs are set so far posteriorly on their body, so the nest must be immediately adjacent, if not floating on, the water, for them to access it readily. Dead vegetation or moss is what is usually used for nest material, and is mound-shaped with a slight depression in the middle.

Here are some photos showing a Common loon nest at Loon Lake, B.C.(55 km NW of Kamloops).

The female rises up in the top left photo (the egg barely visible beneath her), and turns the egg with her bill (lower left).  She then repositions herself back on the egg (upper right) and resumes incubation (lower right). How did I know she is female?  Her head is slightly rounder on top than a male's, and the male was slightly larger while next to her.  The nest is built on a former log pier in a sheltered cove, away from high waves and human disturbance, and offers excellent visibility. This site has been used for the past several years.

Here is a close-up view into a typical "floating" loon nest, this one on the north Twin Lake in Washington.  It is actually  on a small island-like clump of growing vegetation. In the middle is a clump of dead vegetation arranged by the loons.  Note the eggshell fragments in the nest (which actually belong to the two chicks shown in the next photo below this one!)

There is strong evidence that loons mate for life. A breeding pair of loons will meet at the nesting lake in mid-spring, just as the lake is thawing. Courtship then shortly begins, followed by copulations (which are the only other times loons go up onto dry land during their life, besides incubation).

Normally, two large brown-spotted olive eggs about are laid, the second being slightly smaller, and incubation begins with the first egg. It takes 28-31 days for the chicks to hatch, depending on the weather (cooler, inclement weather may shorten incubation a day or two), and slightly on species. When the chicks hatch, they are ready to swim and dive, but return very often to their parents for warmth, as they only have a thin black down coat.  They also stay at times in a "nursery area" set up by the parents in a secluded back-water area, until they are strong swimmers and divers. The chicks ride on their parent's back much of the time for the first two weeks, until they are too heavy to do so. The chicks then begin refining their newly found diving and swimming skills. Loon chicks are semi-precocial- able to see, swim, and dive upon hatching, but require feeding and a high amount of care, due to the predatory requirement of survival. The parents grab small prey and feed it to the chicks, for several weeks more.

This is a photo showing a family of three Common loon chicks at Loon Lake, B.C. The third chick, at far upper right, had been adopted by the pair from another pair, and is about a week older.

Now, click on to hear some vocalizations I recorded from these particular chicks at Loon Lake, B.C. as they followed the adult loons around.

Parent loons may impair fish and place them in front of the chick to teach it to hunt, sometimes requiring the young to dive for it. After three months, the fledglings are usually hunting on their own.

When the chicks are about four months old, it is already fall. The adult loons begin leaving the lakes between early September and early November for their wintering habitats along coastal waters in the ocean to the south, also leaving the chicks to fend for themselves. The chicks usually follow suit shortly after the adults. The adults in the pair do not winter together. In fact, they may spend the winter in areas hundreds or even thousands of kilometers apart.

Migrations occur during the day only, frequently between mid morning and late afternoon, over a route with stopovers (lakes or rivers) to rest and feed. The photo here shows Pacific and red-throated loons in migratory flights past Pt. Mugu, CA northward in spring (April-May). Loons can fly in excess of 160 km/h, so lots of ground is covered quickly.

In the U.S., loons winter on both east and west coasts, as well as the Gulf coast, and in a few warm freshwater bodies of water along the coasts. Also, loons winter and mature along Mexico's west and east coasts, and in the Gulf of California. In California, inland bodies of water, such as Lake Cachuma near Santa Barbara and the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley harbor wintering loons, particularly common. Large bays, such as Morro Bay, Los Angeles Harbor, Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay host large numbers of wintering loons as well, mostly commons.

This photo shows a few Common loons wintering in San Francisco Bay, along with some surf scoters.

Upon arriving in the ocean during the winter, loons change their biological processes to accommodate a salty environment and diet. They can excrete salt through their nares, ingested from the saltwater, fish and invertebrates they intake. Usually loons are less social in winter, and are much less vocal. The immature and adult birds do gather in loose associations, probably due to food availability and shelter, and most frequently at night, but they are solitary much of the time. Some loons will winter on freshwater lakes adjacent to the coast in their wintering territory. Most loons will feed on small saltwater fishes, but some do catch crabs, mussels, small squid, or even seastars. I've seen loons trying to munch on urchins, knocking the spines off and crunching down on it, and others gulping down pieces of kelp, but these are generally unusual behaviors.

The young loons will stay in the ocean along the coast for the first three to four years of their lives, until they are sexually mature. They then return to their natal lake, or a lake within 30 km of the lake they were raised on, and then perform the north-south migration routine year by year.

Loons, particularly the Common loon, are noted for their vocal repertoire. All produce wails, tremolos, and hoot-like calls unlike any other bird. I am going to, for a minute, focus on the most familiar loon vocalizations to people- those of the common loon. Native legends have described these tremolos and wails as spirits of the dead calling, or messengers speaking. Movies, T.V. shows, and commercials play these sounds as "jungle" sounds or "tropical" sounds erroneously, not realizing that these are actually sounds from the HIGH latitudes, not the low! Literally hundreds of "natural sounds" type records and CD's have been cut by electronically sampling loon calls and mixing them with music. Loon vocalizations are what many people associate the northern lakes and wilderness with.

Let's now listen to the four basic Common loon vocalizations, as well as a combination phrase and some common loon chick calls, and find out what they really mean to the birds, and to us.

The most basic call of the Common loon is the WAIL. It is an unmodulated "smooth" call. The use of the wail is to call the chicks or mate, and indicates the bird's desire to interact with another loon. There are three types of wails- Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. Type 2 displays a much stronger desire in the bird, and Type 3 reveals a more intense desire than Type 2. Type 1 is a simple rise and fall wail. Type 2 rises to a point and then flips up about one-half an octave and then back down. Type 3 rises, flips up one half an octave, and then again flips up nearly another half octave again.

Click to hear Type 1,2, and 3 wails played in a row. I recorded these calls at Loon Lake, B.C. and Twin Lakes, WA.

Here is a photo of a Common loon producing a wail at Loon Lake, B.C.  As it stretches its neck upward, the mouth barely opens; much of the sound eminates though the throat skin and the nares.

The next type of call is simply a wail that is pitch-modulated. The loon wails while rapidly opening and closing its bill around five times. This creates the laugh-like TREMOLO, so beautiful and familiar to people. The meaning of the call is not so beautiful, though. It is a distress call when the bird has become frightened or otherwise disturbed by some situation, be it another loon intruding on the family, a predator, or a man approaching the loon or its chicks too close, etc. Like the wails, there are Type 1,2, and 3 tremolos. The same 1/2 octave up-flip on Type 2 and two 1/2 octave up-flips on Type 3 occurs as in the wail, and have the same emotional intensity correlation as in the wail, Type 3 being the most distressed and Type 1 being rather mild distress.

Click  to hear the three types of tremolos, Types 1,2, and 3 played in a row. I recorded them at Loon Lake, B.C.

Here is a photo of a common loon producing a tremolo.

There is a call, also vary familiar to many, that only the male produces. This is the YODEL. It is basically a territorial call to ward off another intruding loon, or in other instances, intruding people or animals, from the immediate breeding territory set up by the male, or from the vicinity of the female and young chicks. Usually, though, it is a confrontation between two rivaling males . It is usually accompanied by the "penguin dance", where the aggressor male stands erect on the water with wings open, belly pointed straight forward and head tucked. The yodel starts, though, with the male standing erect with the head hung low and bill wide open. He will move his head back and forth as he calls, and then may initiate a penguin dance. The call starts as a low wail, rising rapidly, usually flipping up 1/2 octave twice. Then a squeaky-wail-like phrase or "motif", unique to that particular male, is made, and repeated anywhere from one to several times, depending on how intensely aggressive the male is toward the situation, This call is so unique to the individual male making it that voice-prints can be made to identify that one bird from hundreds year after year.

Click  to here two different yodels. My friend Peter Otto recorded Yodel #1 at a lake in north central Montana (initiated by recordings played by a loon research team) and I recorded Yodel #2 at Loon Lake, B.C., (initiated by another male intruding on a breeding territory of a loon family ).

Now, look at the sonograms below.  These are the actual frequency analyses of the two yodels you just heard.  Each male common loon can be "voice-printed" or "voice-tagged" this way, and identified by its unique frequency vs. time "fingerprint" of its yodel.

The fourth basic Common loon call is the HOOT or "kwuk", depending on if the loon is "muttering" or is openly hooting. The bird can change the pitch of the hoots, or their volume, or cause it to up-flip rapidly, resulting in a "kwuk" instead of a "hoo". This call is basically a cohesion call, where the bird is making its presence known to another loon- a kind of "hey", "hi", "eh", "what's up" or head-nod of the loon world, kind of like chatting, but just relaying or maintaining a stable cooperative group emotional state, very commonly heard in floating flocks or between two rather distant individuals.

Click  to hear hoots as I recorded a group of nine "loner" (non-breeding) adult Common loons at Loon Lake, B.C. swimming closely together late one evening out on the middle of the lake.

Sometimes, a Common loon can make simple "phrases" by combining two different calls. The most common is the tremolo-wail. This call can vary widely, and the style may be unique to a particular bird, varying widely from loon to loon. A tremolo-wail means the bird is nervous, but wants to locate its chicks or mate. It may be nervous of another loon, but may still want to interact with it (love/hate relationship).

Click  to hear tremolo-wails I have recorded from Twin Lakes, WA., and Loon Lake, B.C.

Common loons can also produce under rare circumstances tremolo-yodels. (sorry-I have not been privileged enough to record any of these yet, so no recordings are available here).

Common loon chicks can produce a variety of calls as well. Yelp and contact calls occur almost as if the chick was startled by the event.

Click  to hear some yelp calls from a 6 day old chick at Bootjack Lake, MT my friend Peter Otto recorded while I worked with a research team collecting data.

Click  to hear calls from a four week old chick that the research team and I were working with as my friend recorded them.

Loons face many hazards that threaten their future on this planet. Loons in general are declining in number mainly due to habitat destruction. Everyone (understandably) would like to own a lake-front house. Most loon habitat (dense clumps of sheltering reeds and bulrushes) around a lake is usually cleared to make way for docks and boat launches and backyards, etc. When this goes all of the way around the lake, where do the loons nest? Not at that lake anymore! And this goes on and on at the next lake...and the next... and so on and so forth. Historically, here in the U.S., loons nested from northern California to Colorado to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Now, only the northern tier states enjoy nesting common loons. Only about 7 confirmed nests in Washington State, one in Idaho, and only a handful in Montana are left.

Other hazards exist. Acidity of lakes in the eastern U.S. is increasing due to pollutants from the rest of the country to the west. Acid rain filling these lakes year after year are causing fish populations to drop to zero in some lakes. Pollution in the form of heavy metals are building up in the lipid-bearing tissues of loons, which are not easily excreted. Mercury is a serious offender, especially in the northeast part of the U.S. and eastern Canada, as well as coastal bays like Berkeley Marina in California, where invertebrates are so highly contaminated that warnings are posted not to eat crabs or shellfish (and I've seen loons gorging on crabs right below). Lead is also a major threat. Sources are air pollution, runoff from mining tailings, and more often than not, lead from lead fishing sinkers left in the lake, piling up on the bottom, year after year (and us humans are drinking this stuff, too!). Low pH in the now acidic lakes then speeds up the dissolving process of the lead, further increasing the waterborne Pb concentrations.

A recent and extremely serious threat to loons on their breeding lakes which is resulting in countless deaths of loons and sinking of their floating nests is the new personal watercraft or jetskis. Not so much the machine itself, but just the way it is operated. One pass at high speed alongside a loon nesting area could wipe out that clutch for the year by creating a wake that effectively sinks the floating platform nest or knocks the eggs into the water. Several wakes from large numbers of these watercraft can be enough to render large portions of the lake unusable for nesting.

There have also been horror stories of speed-boaters that purposely run over loons for sport, or shoot them because they supposedly eat all of the fish the fishermen should be catching instead. Many well-seasoned fishermen still hold an unnecessary grudge against the species, claiming that loons eat all of the fish out of lakes. I heard of one owner of a fishing resort in the Okanogan National Forest of northern Washington who said that "the only sound I like to hear from a loon is the sound of a loon after it was shot goin' gurgle-gurgle-gurgle!" because the loons on his lake supposedly were eating his whole stock away. To the contrary- loons, like any predator, eat the weaker or sick fish first. I don't know about the owner of that fishing resort, but I sure would like to catch a nice healthy fish on my hook and reel instead of a diseased, weak one, or at least know that the quality of the fish I caught from that lake would be consistently higher due to the presence of the loons. Loons are actually doing a valuable service for us who enjoy fishing.

Here in the wintering areas, other threats affect loons. Oil spills from tankers, dumping or pipeline accidents can wipe out hundreds of loons in the ocean at a time by preventing proper preening and then hypothermia quickly sets in, as well as poisoning by ingestion of the petroleum. Even small amounts can soil a loon to the point where it can't keep it's feathers waterproof. Some bays or harbors have high levels of pollutants on the surface of the water (oils, diesel fuel, plastics, discarded fishing line, etc.

Below is a photo of a Pacific loon contaminated with oil.  It is rare for loons to get out of the water like this, unless something is wrong with the bird. The photo shows the bird setting weak and oiled on a dock in Marina Del Rey, CA.

Here are some more photos of this Pacific loon as I rehabilitated it. First I had to wash the bird with Dawn dish detergent, and rinse thoroughly, over and over for hours. The first photo shows the bird cleaned up and the second photo is the loon close up from the front.  Compare to the photo above of the bird on the dock.

Here, I am allowing the bird to flap and stretch its wings the day before release.

This photo shows the loon after I released it at Lake Cachuma, CA., near Santa Ynez.

Click  to hear the wail vocalization of this Pacific loon I recorded, first from in her  temporary indoor enclosure, and then after I released her at Lake Cachuma.

A few uneducated sport fishermen may sometimes get lazy and, if they hook a loon accidentally, they will whack the line off , instead of removing the hook from the bird, leaving it to die (usually of infection or starvation, or if entangled in the monofilament, hypothermia due to its inability to preen properly). I have seen many a wintering loon here die this way, despite my efforts to retrieve and treat the birds.

Here is a picture of a Common loon at Cabrillo Beach, San Pedro, CA. a few years ago, with fishing line around its bill and a hook probably puncturing its crop. Despite my many attempts to retrieve this bird, I failed, and the bird did not make it.

Then there are just plain uneducated and mischievous individuals who torment or try to injure the loons by taking potshots with guns or slingshots, or chase them in boats to try to hit them before they dive.

Commercial fish nets, such as gill nets, unintentionally catch thousands of loons each year.  New designs with escape hatches have been developed, but implementation is extremely slow.

A phenomenon known as "loon fallout" sometimes occurs in developed areas during periods of heavy rain. Loons sometimes think that streets, highways, and parking lots are rivers and lakes, due to their wet appearances.  The loon may  then try to land on these wet surfaces and wind up stuck there, unable to take off.  Remember, loons (excluding the Red-throated loon) need up to a hundred meters of water to skitter across into flight, and cannot walk or run on land at all.  Loons stranded on roadways, if not injured already, will surely perish if not picked up, taken to a large body of water, and re-released (so keep your eyes open during wet weather!)

Finally, to the north, there are still native peoples of North America that hunt loons...but it is NOT these traditional loon harvesting activities that are the main threat- it is the already decimated CONDITION of the loon population whose vulnerability has been increased by the highly detrimental exploitive activities of the recent immigrant majority, who have bestowed the problems upon the loons (and the native peoples) in the first place.

An estimated 5000 Common loons are killed for food in northern central Canada by the Cree tribe each spring during the breeding season (the most sensitive productivity time of the year), and hundreds of Red-throats, Arctics and Yellow-bills are taken by the Inuits in the Northwest. The reasoning behind the hunting of these loons is mainly due to tradition and heritage, and has been going on for centuries without problems at all. One study suggests that loons make up about 1% of the diets of these peoples, and the feathers and skins are utilized for ornamentation. Most loons killed are adults (due to the plumage desired), which adversely takes away from the potential productivity of the species. The 5000 adults taken yearly in Ontario, Canada is around 20% of the total local Common loon population (mostly BREEDING adults in spring), and when normal annual mortality and nest failure is factored in, the population will not be able to sustain itself in its CURRENT sensitive state.  But two centuries ago, there would have been NO THREAT AT ALL from native peoples harvesting loons, even several times the magnitude as current, when the loon population was several times bigger and much more viable and resiliant  than today. If an additional 2500 breeding pairs (1/2 of 5000 Common loon adults) suddenly appeared in our northern tier states of the United States, we would most certainly be excited and grateful!

 If no harvesting would occur all of the sudden, we would STILL need several decades to BEGIN to recover loons back to a fraction of their historical numbers and range. (Remember, juveniles only go back to within 30 km of their natal lakes, so the spread back southward would be exceedingly slow, taking several decades to become noticeable).

The native peoples are not "wrong" for harvesting loons- they never had the added negative pressures on their loon population until recently from settling westerners.  They never had the choice to pollute or develop lakeshores.  But Nature does not apply moral judgements such as "right" or "wrong" to a loon killed by either natural causes or a man- it is just a "-1" to the population either way.  Strictly in light of the status-quo, sensitivity and imbalance of the CURRENT loon population TODAY, and considering NUMERICALLY the dynamics of the loon population, harvesting of loons does have a measureable impact on the southward re-expansion or even maintenance of current loon populations, especially Common loons. The impact is FAR greater in significance today than in past centuries SOLELY due to the loon population being decimated by westernized settlers to a fraction of what it once was. When considering the effect of the annual harvest of loons on the loon population as a whole, and comparing its effect upon TODAY'S diminished loon population to the loon population of a FEW CENTURIES BACK, an anology would be the comparison in container volume-change between taking a sip from a small drinking glass as opposed to taking that sip from a bucket. The change, both percentage-wise and in genetic diversity, is much more drastic in the former case.  Three centuries ago, harsh environmental pressures and conditions such as pollutuion and habitat destruction, all bestowed upon the birds by industrialized settlers, were non-existent, and the natives took very good care of the habitat and their inhabitants, only taking what they needed, therefore the impact was minimal, if not immeasureable.  

Enough of the violins... what can we do to protect loons and their habitat, and curb the population decline and turn it into an increase?

First, learn to share our world with theirs. If we want to live in loon habitat, don't push them out. Leaving some space on the shorelines of lakes protected for wildlife to continue using the lake is important. A lake completely encircled with manmade structures is a pitiful, messy sight anyway, as well as being sterile to breeding waterfowl.

Understand that some things came first, and pushing them out is not the answer. If you are involved with running a fishing operation, realize that we are not the only ones that eat fish, and it has been that way since the beginning of time. The loons will not eat all of your stock- remember, a loon can only hunt with it's eyes; it doesn't have a sense of smell, it can't taste its way around or use a lateral line system to detect vibrations as fish do. Can you see a fish across a lake, go over there and grab it? Of course not (fishing wouldn't be a sport!) Loons can't either. They can only sit on the water, peer and look for fish in the immediate vicinity. This is hardly be an efficient mode to exterminate a whole stock of fish!

Be careful with pollution. Be conscious of ways to reduce it. Don't dump nonnatural substances into a lake or coastal waters. Who knows, you may drink it next!

Recycle Ni-Cd, NiMH, Hg and lead-acid batteries; don't just trash them to the landfills.

Recycle used petroleum products like motor oil.

(Sounds like stuff you may have heard before!)

Other, more direct things we should do to protect loons in particular:

Be careful with those personal watercraft!!! Don't just whoosh close by areas where you know loons are nesting- your wake may wipe out the whole year's breeding attempt in one pass!  Have fun and have a blast on your jetskis- just give the loons a little breathing room. Some nest sites may be marked with buoys- please keep clear of these areas. Don't chase the loons- it is extremely stressful on the birds- equivalant to someone chasing you down with a car while you are in a big parking lot on foot trying to dodge them! Even if you are in a small boat or canoe, moving slow, when you hear tremolos nearby, give the loons some space- they may have chicks or a mate on the nest. Don't bump an incubating loon off of the nest- the eggs could be vulnerable to predation or cooling, ruining that year's productivity (and it could be the LAST attempt there, too).

Educate people about loons and how vulnerable the species has become to humans, much more so than other species. Education is the number one priority, both in the breeding areas, and also in the wintering areas. You would be amazed at how few people here in California know what a loon is in the first place, much less how to protect them. I play loon calls to people I meet (from a voice-recording keychain) and many think it is "sounds of the jungle" or something. They point to loons near a fishing pier and call them "funny ducks". How can we protect loons, especially here in their wintering habitat, if we can't even identify what to protect! Others who do know birds and even belong to birding clubs, and have been birding for years, sometimes can't believe that we have loons here in California during the winter, and actually year-round if you consider juvenile loons maturing their first four years in the ocean. I remember one incident where a seasoned birder from Minnesota visiting here was shocked when I pointed out Common and Red-throated loons swimming in the surf, and then joked to her that we have a hundred times more loons than the "loon state" in the winter! (well... it's true!) The shock left after I reassured her that no nests have been recorded for California since last century, way up in Shasta County. In the breeding areas to the north, education should focus on the life cycle of loons, pollution, and vulnerability to human disturbance on nesting grounds, especially to the more receptive children.

Educational approaches would be appropriate for the natives of North America that hunt loons, NOT harsh laws. These natives are DEFINITELY NOT to blame for the current condition of the loon population. The amount of  loon-hunting by natives has actually been decreasing slowly, but only because the number of natives themselves has dwindled- another sad state of affairs.  They should be allowed to make decisions among themselves as to what approaches should be planned to control the harvest. Certainly these peoples would not wish to see loons vanish from their lands, and if they understood that they could take part in the protection of loons, they would be ensuring that their future generations could continue traditional activities, such as loon harvesting.  Invitation to involvement in loon protection programs and educational programs are key, so these peoples may actively protect one of their own important natural resources!

VERY IMPORTANTLY, we should work HARD to have loons classified as an Endangered Species. Many "high-profile" endangered birds, such as the Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon, have come right back from the brink of extinction, and have enjoyed much public attention, concern, protection and funding of programs to protect them.  But loons continue to decline unchecked, and sadly, are far more overlooked and misunderstood by many, and are not even recognized as "endangered" or even "threatened" in the United States, despite the loss of over 90% of the nesting population of 300 years ago within the lower 48 states.

"We will only learn what we are taught, we will only love what we learn, and we will protect only what we love."

If you want to help, join a loon protection organization!

Please feel free to me for any loon questions or comments you may have!

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