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FALL 2014

TremoloNorth American Loon Symposium a Success

More than 130 people attended the North American Loon Symposium in October. Twenty-seven presenters from across the country and Canada provided a comprehensive and current overview of loon research and protection efforts occurring throughout North America. It had been almost two decades since a gathering of loon enthusiasts, researchers, and citizen scientists convened to discuss the latest science, trends, and threats in the world of loon science, and a first for Northland College to host.

The enthusiasm and camaraderie was palpable throughout the Ponzio

Student Center and the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. Researchers exchanged ideas and stories with each other as well as Loon Rangers and other symposium attendees. There was an additional exchange of ideas at the working group meetings. The two groups, Research Directions & Conservation Strategies and Citizen Science & Monitoring, established research priorities, potential collaborations, funding sources, and next steps. We anticipate routine dialogue will be held at a national and international scale in the future.

The symposium began Friday evening with a loon necropsy performed by expert Dr. Mark

Pokras from Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Saturday included a keynote address on the progress of loon science in the last decade by Dr. Michael Meyer, poster and guest presentations, and a local food tasting. Saturday evening Dr. Judy McIntyre, who at 85 has devoted her life to loon research, gave a presentation to a standing ovation. Sunday included the working groups’ conclusions and recommendations.

A huge thank you to the generous sponsors, volunteers, presenters, and planning committee who helped to make this event a huge success.

Photo by: Linda Grenzer

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Keynote speaker Michael Meyers, a research scientist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, presented an overview of research innovations that have led to advances in common loon conservation in Wisconsin and other parts of North America at the North American Loon Symposium in October.

Meyers believes Dave Evers, executive director of the Biodiversity Research Institute Center for Loon Conservation in Maine, started it all with his “simple innovation of being able to safely, efficiently, and reliably capture the common loon.”

Early in his career, Evers discovered a way to tag breeding loons. Since then, the practice has evolved and has allowed Meyers and many other loon researchers to tag adult loons with specific colors for easier identification.

Meyers said being able to effectively track and identify loons has led to a better understanding of loon behavior, migration, communication, reproduction, genetics, rehabilitation, and population growth through countless field research initiatives and graduate projects across the nation.

Meyers himself was able to use the tagging method in his research in observing the connection between mercury levels in fish and lakes in relationship to loon reproduction and health starting in 1991.

He has been able to sample over

one thousand common loons for mercury exposure in the past twenty-four years in the Northern Highlands Lake District in northern Wisconsin. According to Meyers, that area is “lake rich, holds half of the breeding population of loons in Wisconsin, and shows both high levels of mercury in both fish and loons.”

Meyers combined his findings with those of Neil Burgess, wildlife toxicologist for Environment Canada, and found two correlations: mercury levels are higher in fish found in acidic lakes and loon productivity declines as the mercury content in fish increases.

Kevin Kenow, with the United States Geological Survey, also discovered that higher levels of mercury in loon eggs decreases the likelihood of them hatching.

Recent research about the common loon has uncovered unique migration patterns, the role of the territorial yodel, loon partnership dynamics, why loons are attracted to specific breeding grounds, and so much more.

Meyers concluded his presentation by stating that Evers’s innovation twenty-five years ago was just the catalyst for him and many others to unlock uncommon secrets of the life of a common loon.

“So whatever your work is, learn who the innovators are, stay close and provide them with resources,” Meyers said. “There is so much more to learn about loons.”

Michael A. Miller, Ph.D.President, Northland College

Mark R. Peterson, Ph.D.Executive Director, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute

Erica LeMoineLoonWatch and Citizen Science Program Coordinator

SOEI StaffJean Ayers Administrative Assistant

MaryJo GingrasOutreach Program Coordinator

Matthew HudsonWatershed Program Coordinator

Randy Lehr, Ph.D.Bro Professor of Sustainable Regional Development

Christopher McNerneyEnvironmental Chemist

Lissa RadkeLake Superior Binational Forum Coordinator

Special ContributorsAmber Mullen

Student Work-StudyDevon Brock MontgomeryChristopher W. EmoryNile MertonMegan McPeakDesi NiewinskiKim OldenborgAndrew WeirSamantha Winters

Contact LoonWatch Phone: 715-682-1220 Email: loonwatch@northland.edu On the web: northland.edu/loonwatch

Recent Research Advances Loon ConservationBy Amber Mullen

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Loon experts representing more than a dozen agencies from Alaska to Florida gathered at Northland College for the first North American Loon Symposium in many years. Standing from left to right: Vincent Spagnuolo, Marge Gibson, Kevin Kenow, Walter Piper, Nina Schoch, Charles Walcott, Michael Meyer, Joseph Kaplan, Mark Pokras, Susan Gallo, Judy McIntyre, Jeff Fair; Front row from left to right: Carrie Gray, Alec Lindsay, Michelle Kneeland, Paul Spitzer, Tiffany Grade, Margaret Comfort, and Jay Mager.

Symposium attendees seized the opportunity to collaborate during early morning working group sessions. Working group themes included Citizen Science & Monitoring and Research Directions & Conservation Strategies. Led by experts, participants worked to establish research priorities, potential collaborations, funding sources, and next steps. Future routine dialogue may be held at a national/international scale. Stacy Craig (former LoonWatch coordinator), pictured here, helped facilitate the Citizen Science & Monitoring working group.

The poster presentation and local food tasting in the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute provided a welcoming venue where presenters and attendees mingled and discussed their loon experiences. A wide variety of topics were presented, including loon capture and banding methods, lead fishing tackle impacts, range expansion, genetics, migration, and monitoring loons in Montana, Wyoming, and Iceland.

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The North American Loon Symposium was dedicated to the memory of Grace James, one of the founders of LoonWatch, resident of Stone Lake in Iron County, and author of North to Open Water.

Grace James’s son Doug James recalls his mother’s kinship with loons:

“There are certain people who animals seem to sense are not a threat and in fact are curiously friendly. My mother was the only person I knew who could imitate loon calls apparently with enough loon characteristics to attract the birds to her. I remember seeing her at the end of the dock calling to the Stone Lake pair, and remarkably they would paddle from as far as fifty yards across the water to within fifteen or twenty yards of her, listening clearly in response to this land animal imitating their call from the heart of a kind of kinship in nature. Of course, this earned her the nickname Loony Grace.”

Symposium Dedicated to Grace James

ASHLAND,WI

Learn more about the symposium presenters and their presentations at:

northland.edu/loonprogram

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Loon Rangers Alert!If you have not yet done so, please turn in your

Annual Lakes Monitoring Program monitoring form. Your data is important because it helps us learn about loon productivity in northern Wisconsin and determine plans of action. If you need a monitoring form or have any questions, please contact LoonWatch at (715) 682-1220 or loonwatch@northland.edu.

Thank you for all the work you do to help protect loons and your lake!

photo by: Laura Woodw

ard

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Seeking Volunteers for the 2015 Wisconsin Loon Population Survey

LoonWatch is recruiting volunteers to participate in our one-day Wisconsin Loon Population Survey. LoonWatch orchestrates this statewide loon population survey once every five years. This survey is vital to assessing the effectiveness of current conservation efforts with the loon population.

The 2015 survey will take place between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. on July 18, 2015. During this time, survey volunteers will record the number of adult loons and loon chicks from a list of 258 pre-selected lakes in northern and central Wisconsin. This information will then be used to estimate the loon’s statewide population and breeding success.

Call or email LoonWatch to sign up for the Wisconsin Loon Population Survey (715) 682-1220 or loonwatch@northland.edu. Check out the list of lakes that need volunteers at northland.edu/loonpopsurvey.

SUPPORTLoonWatch.

northland.edu/give

Your support makes the work of LoonWatch and the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute possible. It provides information for the public, support for research, and valuable hands-on experience for Northland College students —the conservation professionals of the future. Please consider making a sustained gift to LoonWatch or the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. Even a small monthly gift can make a big difference. For more information or to set up your sustained gift, call (715) 682-1234 or go to:

photo by: Brad Thompson

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In ideal circumstances it takes two loons to raise a happy family. However, in the case of loon adoptions it takes a collaborative team of dedicated loon experts, a diversion, two willing parents, and a (mostly) friendly sibling. This was the story for one such orphaned loon who was successfully adopted by a breeding pair on Muskellunge Lake in northeast Wisconsin in June of 2013.

Last year, a three-week old male loon was found on the side of the road and transported to the Raptor Education Group Inc. (REGI) where he was successfully rehabilitated from emaciation and attack injuries.

Walter Piper, loon behavior researcher at Chapman University, said many loon chicks on small, acidic lakes are initially rejected by their alpha siblings and receive less food from their parents. As a result,

Orphaned Loon Chick Successfully Adopted by Breeding Pair

these chicks leave their birth family. Unfortunately, most chicks die from starvation or predators before reaching a new lake.

“Faced with almost certain death, these chicks take the rash step of leaving their natal lake and ‘walking’ off in hopes of finding another loon pair that will adopt them,” Piper said. “It’s a total longshot.”

Researchers at REGI and Piper collaborated with Linda Grenzer, Loon Ranger on Muskellunge Lake, and discovered the ideal breeding pair with another chick of approximately the same age on her lake for the adoption.

On July 2, the crew created a diversion to distract the parents and placed the adopted loon next to its new sibling. After the confusion, the loon parents returned to their chick and proceeded with protecting both chicks from the intruder.

After a few days, the parents were feeding both chicks equally and sibling disputes had subsided, suggesting a successful adoption.

Grenzer continued to monitor the family and observed the adopted loon fledge to a neighboring lake in September.

Grenzer believes, barring predation, that the adopted loon is surviving and well to this day.

“What I think is amazing is no one gave up on this chick,” Grenzer said. “It took so many people to help this chick make it.”

According to Piper, this is a unique success story. Only two out of his six attempts at loon adoption have been successful in the past two years.

“It is worth trying to save these chicks from certain death, even if we only succeed about one-third of the time,” said Piper. “So we will keep trying.”

To learn more go to: loonproject.org or raptoreducationgroup.org

By Amber Mullen Photos by Linda Grenzer

Top: The adults from a breeding pair of loons escort both their biological chick and their newly adopted chick on Muskellunge Lake in North East Wisconsin. Bottom: The adopted chick survived the summer and migrated from the area in the fall.

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