Lake Katherine: A Little About our Loons
One of my earliest childhood memories of Lake Katherine is laying in bed at night and hearing for the first time the wail of loons echoing over the lake. But I didn’t yet know they were loons! What was making that eerie and incredibly haunting call? A riveting sound that predates humans by millions of years. A sound that our ancestors heard by fireside. The same sound experienced by those that came before us, enjoyed by us now during spring and summer, and hopefully by those that will follow us. I often think of my late parents when I hear the loons they enjoyed so much. We are connected across time by this sound. What a pleasure. What a gift.
It didn’t even sound like a bird to me at first, but of course I now know it as the call of the common loon Gavia immer. The varied and distinct calls you hear are referred to as wails, tremolos, yodels, and hoots. They all are expressed for different reasons. (A nice explanation to the calls with recordings is offered by the Loon Preservation Committee in New Hampshire.
Everyone I have ever met on Katherine, or the other lakes in our Northwoods that I have had the good fortune to visit, seem to have an innate respect for and love of the loons. Of course there are always a few people, or visitors unfamiliar with the area, that don’t seem to get it but for the most part we are careful with our boats and try to avoid endangering our prehistoric neighbors and their chicks that we share this beautiful environment with. They seem to tolerate us and our boats fairly well though it can get a little crowed for them during the busy summer months.
You might be interested to learn we have a friend of Lake Katherine who has been studying our loons for 30 years. He and his team members have been studying over 100 breeding pairs of loons in Oneida, Vilas, and Lincoln counties. Dr Walter Piper, from Chapman University in California is director of the Loon Project. He puts out a monthly blog about loons that will be of interest to those who would like to keep up to date on what is going on with our loon population in Wisconsin. To learn more about what is happening with our feathered friends, please visit the Loon Project website at: https://loonproject.org/. You can find out some very interesting things about loon behavior as well as sign up for his monthly newsletter.
Dr Piper began studying loons with a focus on territorial and nesting behavior. He has recently changed his focus to conservation as it became apparent that the loon population of northern Wisconsin was rapidly declining. It has declined 22% in the last 25 years and one projection suggests their decline might increase to as much as 6% per year in the near future. Their overall size has also been declining.
Since 2019 Dr Piper has also begun studying loons in Minnesota as he became aware of this increasing rate of decline. The more data gathered over more areas, the better the chance of figuring out what is going on. This is not to say that the global population of loons is in imminent danger, but we would should be aware of the challenges our local feathered friends are facing because what is good for the health of loons is also good for the overall health of our beloved Lake Katherine.
Loon Fun Facts
The oldest recorded loon was 35 years old, though most die before 20 years.
Male loons choose the nesting site, defend it from competitors, share in nesting, feeding of the young and are instrumental in breeding success.
Loons do not mate for life, but a female will stay with a male as long as he is successful.
Loons cannot walk efficiently on land due to their rearward placed feet. They can not walk up a steep incline so they nest near the waterline, often on a floating nest.
Loons often do not breed until 5 to 10 years old. This population of non-breeders are referred to as floaters. They will breed when they are able to acquire a territory from another pair. The floater pool of birds are ready to breed when a suitable territory opens up and they can defend it from their competitors.
After chicks hatch they remain by their natal lake until late November, eating as much as possible to fatten up for the journey south. In contrast their parents leave earlier and will typically spend the fall on Lake Michigan before heading south.
Loons migrate for the winter to the southeast coast of the US and the gulf of Mexico. Some have even been recorded as far south as the Florida Keys.
Loons are not closely related to ducks or grebes, which they resemble. They evolved from a line more closely related to penguins and tropical birds.
In 2023 Katherine lost a male loon on his nest to a hungry Eagle. The egg did not hatch, but a new pair of floaters set up housekeeping on the same site (brave birds) and were successful in having a chick. Due to the banding efforts from the Loon Project, we know that the male was seven years old and came from Lake Tomahawk, and the female was eight years old and came from Two Sisters Lake just south of Lake Katherine.
Loon Conservation
Loons are sight feeders, Adults feed on pretty large panfish; crappie, bluegill, rock bass, & perch. They feed smaller fish and minnows to their chicks.
Adults are finding fewer large panfish in Wisconsin lakes and spend more time foraging for food than they did 30 years ago. (The panfish population has been declining in Wisconsin).
Due to the dearth of large panfish on their breeding grounds the survival of older juveniles and young adults has declined precipitously.
Up to the the early 2000’s, half of loon pairs had 2 chicks with very good survival. In 2010 research showed that chick and juvenile survival has now seriously declined and only 20% to 30% of pairs have 2 chicks.
There is a species of black flies that feed particularly on loons for several weeks during the spring. They swarm and their bites draw blood. They can become such a nuisance that they can force the adults off the nest and cause breeding to be unsuccessful. It appears black flies have been getting worse the last few years.
Loons breed on lakes with varying degrees of water clarity and are very successful. However, they are better able to feed their chicks on the clearer lakes, which are often busier with boating activities during the summer which can make it harder to feed their chicks. So even on traditionally clearer water lakes, the clearer it is, the better for feeding chicks. With the near drought in June and July of 2023, Dr Piper noticed a more successful breeding season with heavier chicks and more 2 chick broods than he had seen in decades. He believes the lack of rainfall kept nutrients such as fertilizers and organic matter from being washed into the lakes resulting in clearer water and the adults being better able to feed their chicks.
Whats Good for The lake is Good for the Loons. What Can We Do?
Continue to keep an eye out for loons while we enjoy skiing, boating, and fishing.
Share with our family, guests, or vacation renters how important the loons are to us and the need to keep a respectful distance from them while they are on the water, and the smaller islands on the lake they use for breeding.
Refrain from using fertilizers on properties adjacent to the lake and pick up animal waste. Both cause nutrients to wash into the lake and promote algal blooms which lowers water clarity and quality.
Use extra caution to keep boat gas, oil, or soaps from spilling into the water. Several people have become interested in replacing the fish cribs that were built and placed around Lake Katherine in the 1990’s. They have since rotted away but for a long time they provided attractive habitat for fish, and were effective in increasing and sustaining fish populations for anglers, as well as loons and eagles who depend on fish for food. Let your Lake Katherine Association know if you have an interest in new fish cribs for the lake.
Donations to support the ongoing research on Wisconsin loons can be made at https://loonproject.org/. It is getting harder each year to obtain funding for research and they appreciate and welcome every donation.