We were horrified last spring, when one of our best-known territorial males — and a super tame bird to boot — became hopelessly entangled in fishing line. This male, the long-term resident on Jersey City Flowage (“JCF”) had swallowed two lead sinkers, and monofilament line was wrapped tightly about his bill, making it impossible for him to eat. In short, the JCF male was destined to perish quickly from lead poisoning and/or lack of food. However, the folks from REGI freed him and used new technology to pluck both lead sinkers from his gut. Although he lost much of his tongue because of the fishing line, we were heartened when Linda found him in July of last year gorging himself on bullheads near his old territory (see photo below).

But recovery after a brush with death was just the beginning for this bird. In order to reclaim his previous position, the male needed to regain his strength, migrate successfully to his winter quarters, survive the winter, migrate back north, and then — most challenging of all — regain possession of his former territory, which had been quickly snapped up by another male after the injury. (The new male bred successfully last year and was banded by our team.) Yesterday, Linda confirmed that the old, war-torn JCF male has negotiated all of these hurdles and settled in a breeding pair back on his old territory (see Linda’s photo below). We presume that he is also with his old mate, but she is one of the few wily adults that has managed to elude us, despite several efforts at capture. So she is still unbanded. The resilience of the JCF male is important. He is only the third adult to have been severely injured by fishing tackle, lost his territory, and recovered to reclaim it. Three data points can never be a robust sample, but we also have many cases where entanglement occurred and adult loons did not recover. In fact, we have about 9 well-documented cases of death following entanglement, which, combined with the three success stories, yields an estimate of 25% likelihood of recovery. So while the story of the JCF male’s journey from disaster to full recovery lifts our spirits, it is hard to forget that this is the exception, not the rule.