This is a frantic time of year for wildlife and wildlife rehabbers. Why? Because while you are ditching Weird Aunt Beatrice at your family reunion, loon pairs and their chicks must dodge your crazy nephew Lucas on his Jetski. Needless to say, loons have considerably more on the line.
The tranquility of May did not prepare the Tomahawk-Kemp pair — or me — for the life and death struggle they would face in July. On May 11th I ran across the super tame male and female from Tomahawk-Kemp when they were preparing to nest in the long channel between Minocqua and Tomahawk. On that visit, they seemed almost to welcome my presence, and it was a simple matter to scribble down all of their colored leg bands as they rested and made short dives near my canoe. I experienced one of those moments when you are alone with nature and feel a sudden, ineffable connection with a wild animal. I wondered: “Does the male remember me from 17 years ago, when I first encountered him as a settler on South Two Lake?”
The Tomahawk-Kemp pair’s recent experiences with humans have been considerably less pleasant than those in May. We do not know the whole story, but on about June 17th, the pair hatched two chicks. (Judith Bloom, whose June 20th photo appears above, helped us narrow the dates with her routine checks.) Having survived black flies, raccoons, eagles, and curious humans to hatch both eggs, the Kemp pair headed out into the main body of Tomahawk to locate small fish suitable for their ravenous youngsters. There they began the daunting task of diving to catch food for the chicks, while at the same time helping the tiny fuzzballs steer clear of boat traffic. Most boaters adhere to local ordinances with respect to speed, distance from shore, and respect for wildlife; some do not. We suspect that a boater in the latter category ran down – either purposely or not – the Kemp hatchlings on the 1st or 2nd of July. The parents were unscathed; adult loons can dive rapidly and deeply, and those living on Lake Tomahawk have ample experience avoiding motorboats. Young chicks, however, have neither the diving capacity nor the familiarity with speeding watercraft to help them escape collisions.
Both chicks were hit by the boat. Linda Grenzer snapped the photo below of the less severely injured chick; it showed a healed wound towards the tail end, near the base of the left leg.
The second chick looked better externally but had internal damage from the boat strike — a ruptured air sac — which prevented it from floating upright in the water. (Bird’s air sacs are thin membranes that connect to the lungs and are part of the respiratory system.) So Linda, Elaina, and Kevin decided to catch this listing chick and take it to REGI for treatment. Fortunately, REGI repaired the damage, fed the chick well, and prepared it for successful release three days later. As you can see from Linda’s photos at the release, both pair members quickly accepted their missing youngster.
On the other hand, its sibling had apparently enjoyed being an only and had mixed feelings about the reunion!
According to recent reports, all is now well with all four members of the Kemp family. Life will continue to be a wild ride, because boat traffic will not wane for several more weeks, and the siblings will no doubt bicker over food from time to time. Since chicks rapidly improve their diving skills, though, we can hope that these two have had their last close encounter with fast-moving watercraft.