Summer on the lakes is set to loon music

I enjoyed an early morning fishing trip on a beautiful lake last week, using only my quiet electric trolling motor. Using my onboard electronics, I slowly cruised around the lake searching my favorite spots for schools of fish. It was peaceful and pleasant because the jet skiers and other forms of noisy boats and lake recreationists were still sleeping. As best as I could tell, I had the lake to myself. 

My only company was my favorite water bird, a pair of common loons. Or should I say three loons because the two adult loons had a young one with them. The young loon was a fuzzy gray color. They were fishing for their breakfast by diving deep into the lake. Occasionally, an adult loon would surface with a wiggling fish in its beak, swim to the loon chick and let it grab and devour the small fish. For over an hour, those loons fed within 20-30 feet of my boat.  

The common loon is a large and beautiful black and white bird known for its distinct call that echoes across our northern lakes, especially at night. Northwest Montana with its many pristine lakes is the summer home of many loons. I don’t know of any cabin owners or campers that don’t love loons. The loud and sometimes mournful call of the loon is a sign of northern lake country.  

North America has four species of loons. All loons are northern birds. The red-throated loon, the Pacific loon and the yellow-billed loon are found only in the far north of Canada and Alaska. Our local loons, the common loon, have a breeding range that includes the northern tier of states in the U.S. They are relatively abundant in the lake regions of New England, the lake states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and in Northwest Montana. The common link to this loon habitat is an abundance of fresh-water lakes. In the fall, loons migrate south or west to the ocean to winter and this is where the young will spend a couple years maturing. Eventually, they all come back to inland fresh water to breed and reproduce.   

Loons are a relatively large bird weighing 7 to 10 pounds with a wingspan of up to 48 inches. They are a bird that is designed to dive deep into the water to obtain fish. They have been recorded to dive as deep as 100 feet. While they can seasonally fly hundreds of miles, they have trouble getting airborne. They are also almost unable to walk on land. That is why their nests are usually within a foot or two of water. Their wings are relatively small in relation to their body weight, so they require a long stretch of surface water to gain enough speed to fly. While puddle ducks like the mallard can literally leap into the air from the surface of a lake or pond, loons generally need a 100 yards of water surface to develop enough speed to become airborne. Even then they will frequently circle around a small lake in-order to gain altitude to clear the bordering trees. That is why loons generally are found only on larger bodies of water. 

There are many instances of loons landing on rainy highways thinking the shiny wet surface is water. They become stuck because of their inability to move on land. When this happens, passersby usually capture the stranded loons and transport them to a nearby open water lake. If loons do not leave their lake summer habitat soon enough in the fall, they can become trapped when it freezes over. Several years ago, late in the fall, I was working near the town of Deer Lodge. I ventured into the nearby mountains to look at a large reservoir holding irrigation water. As I was hiking the shoreline of this frozen reservoir, I heard a bird call. I thought, gee, that sure sounds like a loon call. But what would a loon be doing on this frozen lake? As I hiked around the end of this reservoir I found a small creek flowing into the reservoir creating a small patch of open water. 

There was a loon. Swimming on that patch of open water. 

The loon apparently summered on the reservoir, but overstayed his fall departure. It woke up one morning to find the reservoir frozen except for this small patch. The ice was too thin for me to walk on, so I had no way to rescue it. I assume this small patch of open water eventually froze. The loon would likely climb on the ice and await the arrival of a predator that would kill and eat it. Life in the wild can be unforgiving.  

People love the calls of a loon, called loon music. Most loon music can be lumped into four distinct calls. The tremolo call is kind of an all-purpose call that is interpreted to be a warning call, greeting call or an annoyance call. The wail call is perhaps their most common call. It is interpreted by some students of loon music as a call just to establish contact between birds. It is believed to be used to help establish loon territories in the spring. It is sort of like wolves peeing on vegetation to mark their territories. 

The other common loon calls are the yodel and hoot. The yodel is thought to establish mating territories in the spring and is most often heard then. The hoot is a commonly used call, usually between family members. Its purpose is thought to be used to maintain contact between family members. As you would expect, there is a great deal of variation between loons when they call and a mixing of calls. All of these calls are what many folks call loon music. Loon music is most pronounced in the spring during mating season when loons will call all night long. 

I hope you are enjoying Northwest Montana's many lakes this summer, and maybe fishing to the tune of loon music.