The Loon Project counts on efficient exchange of information with lake residents and loon enthusiasts as a means to acquire good scientific data. We cover enough lakes — about 120 this year — so that we make visits to them only once every 5 to 7 days. This permits us to track the identity of the breeding pair and record their breeding activity. Over time, we accumulate important data on territorial fidelity, eviction of breeders, and their relocation to other study lakes. But weekly hourlong visits leave lots of holes in our knowledge. So it is helpful that almost all of our lakes are occupied by humans who take an interest in “their loons” and contact us or the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources when something is amiss.

Yesterday, a resident on Flannery Lake called with distressing news. The male on the lake, a 14 year-old reared on Washburn Lake, was dead and being fed upon by a mink. We were particularly saddened to hear such a report from Flannery, because the breeding pair had attempted to rear young every year there since we began to follow them in 1993, but had not fledged a chick successfully since 2006. That unlucky string seemed about to be broken when, earlier this month, the pair hatched two vigorous chicks. We were delighted, though perhaps less so than lake residents, who had watched their loon pair build nests, lay eggs, and incubate them diligently year after year only to lose them — or their small chicks — for reasons unknown.

This morning Seth visited the lake to see whether the female and chicks were still alive and whether another male had taken the deceased male’s place. He snapped the photo above, showing that the female, who is at least a quarter of a century old, is alive and well, as are both chicks. However, he also reported that a possible incipient pair was present on the lake. This makes sense. As I have noted in recent posts, male loons use their yodels to keep hopeful settlers at bay. With no male present to yodel, intruders flying overhead readily land in the lake. Since the female cannot safely leave the two-week-old chicks alone, she cannot easily engage intruders and drive them off. In short, Flannery is prone to intrusion and settlement.

Despite the difficulty of her situation, Seth reports that the Flannery female continued to show territorial behavior towards intruders this morning. It remains to be seen whether she can find refuge on the lake such that she can both avoid any new pair that settles and forage to sustain herself and her young chicks. It is a tall order. Indeed, we have only once observed a female whose mate died or was evicted raise a young chick on her own. In 2012, the male on Squash Lake died of lead poisoning owing to an ingested sinker, leaving his mate and a chick only a few days old. The Squash female that summer miraculously succeeded both in rearing the chick to fledging and in pairing with a new male — a lesson to us all that child-rearing need not prevent an active social life. “Miracle Chick”, as we came to call the survivor on Squash, became our most revered juvenile that year. (Miracle Chick is pictured below with Kristin and Gabby.) 

So there is reason for hope for the young Flannery chicks. If she is vigilant and fortunate, a female can raise a chick, perhaps even two, without help from a male. Considering the long odds of such an achievement, we should certainly resist optimism at this point. We will keep an eye on this fractured family, and I will let you know how things turn out.