In the past five days, the list of lakes with a chick or chicks has grown to five. The list is growing, but still small. We cover over 100 lakes in Oneida, Lincoln and Vilas Counties, so this constitutes less than 5% of our study lakes. It is still early! Don’t panic if your breeding pair has not even nested yet or has failed in a first attempt. There is still time for them to bring off a brood.

This morning Kristin found the banded male on Tomahawk – Sunflower Bay freshly killed and being consumed by eagles. This is a sad discovery for us, because he was a sweet, tame bird with a rich history of rearing chicks — on two separate territories. We cannot be certain that an eagle killed the male, but he was healthy on our last visit, and the pair had recently nested. So we strongly suspect our national bird!

This is a reminder that, while they usually seem to be merely a nuisance, eagles DO have the potential to kill adult loons. Our best-documented example of an adult kill was a female attacked and dispatched by an eagle on a nest on Alva Lake back in 2005. Of course, eagles are a constant threat to chicks.

Funny, but I have struggled to love our national symbol recently. I hope that does not sound unpatriotic!

We are happy to report the first hatch of the season. This one occurred on Jersey City Flowage, our southwestern-most lake, and was found by Jacki, my student from Chapman. JCF had the earliest hatch in the study area last year, as well, so they are staying true to form. We are hoping for many more chicks soon, but don’t hold your breath; this pair seems to be at least a week ahead of other early nesters.

Dozens of territorial pairs in our study area are now on nests. Several pairs have failed. Early indications are that failures this year will be caused mainly by predation. Raccoons are the most frequent culprit, according to work done by the DNR in our region using nest cameras. In spite of the havoc wreaked by raccoons, we still hope for a high rate of hatch.

Territorial visitors are a common sight on breeding territories these days. They will become increasingly common as the season wears on. Many lake residents wonder who these territorial intruders are and what they are doing. These loons are not, as many folks surmise, chicks that have matured and are returning to visit their parents. They are true territorial intruders — individuals that are young and have never possessed a territory or are older and had one but were booted off of it by another loon. Intruders intrude to learn about the territory and its defenders, primarily because they hope to usurp the territory by force on this or a subsequent visit.

One interesting pattern that we have seen in the last few years among intruders is a higher rate of long-distance intruders. For example, On Big Carr Lake a few days ago, we saw a female from Moon Lake in Vilas County. This is a bird banded by my collaborator, Mike Meyer of the DNR. More recently I identified a 5 year-old intruder from Powell Marsh: again, this was a DNR-banded bird from up in Vilas County. Of course, we value every banded intruder, as each gives us an opportunity to track a loon’s movements and the strategy it uses to gain a breeding slot. But the long-distance intruders are especially valuable, because they are chiefly females, which disperse much longer distances than males, on average, and which, therefore, we have learned less about.

Great news! Our manuscript that describes natal site matching was just accepted for publication in a prestigious ecological journal. Very exciting to get the story out there that young loons have a strong statistical tendency to settle on breeding lakes that match their natal lake in both size and pH.

From the field….about half of our breeding pairs are now incubating eggs. Although blackflies are moderately bad, they do not seem to be terrorizing the loons enough to cause them to abandon their nests. I am anticipating a good year for reproduction in Oneida County. (Fingers crossed, as always.)

Many of the pairs I have observed on recent days have spent their time on the surface in a fruitless effort to shake or toss their heads to rid themselves of blackflies. Loons have their own dedicated species of blackfly, Simulium annulus, that depends on them for a blood meal prior to reproduction. Blackfly populations vary from year to year, and it seems pretty clear (though not scientifically proven) that the numbers of these nasty blood-suckers and their synchrony with nesting determines how many loon pairs abandon their nests in May. At this point, we have found seven loon pairs that have just initiated nests. I hope that this first wave of nests survives the blackfly infestation. In 1996, also an extraordinarily late year, abandonments occurred at a moderate rate (about 20%), but were not devastating, as in some years. So, I am optimistic that it could still be a good year for chicks, despite the lateness of ice-out.

I return to the study area from California. I am excited to see all of my friends — loon and human! It will be an eventful first few weeks for the project. Joel Flory has been working steadily to ID mated pairs and keep me apprized of ice conditions, especially in the southern part of the study area. Kristin and Gabby came down from Northland for a weekend to help ID returning loons and covered a lot of ground. But they are both graduating this year (well….fingers crossed  ), leaving Joel and me alone to cover over 100 lakes until the end of the month. My back hurts already!

The lakes are opening, and 4 May (Saturday) is our first full day out covering the study area.  We appreciate the reports we have gotten from many of you about the status of ice on your lakes. Kudos to some folks who have raised the bar by verifying all color bands on their territorial pairs already. Awesome! We have gotten reports from DNR that many loons have become stranded this year because of poor weather and few open lakes and have landed in puddles from which they cannot fly out. (These birds are being reported and are getting help.) Keep Wild Instincts (wildlife rehabbers near Rhinelander) in mind, if you see loons in trouble.

We are waiting impatiently for ice-out, which, it seems, will not occur until May this year. That would be the latest since 1996. Gabby, Kristin and Joel Flory will be covering study lakes early in the year — once they finally open up. Give them a wave if you see them out in their canoes, braving early spring conditions. I will be up myself in early May to help learn which of our loons have returned from the winter and to train the new crew members. Maybe I will see you!

Gabby Jukkula wrote up a behavioral study she and Kristin Brunk did last summer and won an award for best undergraduate paper at the Wisconsin Chapter of the Wildlife Society! Congrats to Gabby for this awesome accomplishment — and to Gabby and Kristin both for the work they put in last summer to complete the work.

We mailed out our annual loon letter to friends and lake-dwellers who help us get access to study lakes and support our work. If you are in this category but have not received our letter, please e-mail or call me, and I will get you a copy. Make sure, too, that I get your mailing address for future years.