30 degrees Clear Wind Calm
As I mentioned last night, it looks like the major part of loon migration may have started!
We now have a third loon, #55490, on his way north.
This loon was from Trude Lake in Wisconsin.
He spent most of the winter in the Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of Florida near Pensacola. He was the westernmost of the loons that we tracked this winter and the one who would possibly have been most vulnerable to the oil spill. He stayed in the same area for most of the winter.
But then on Sunday he started north and apparently made the entire trip to the southern end of the Lake Michigan in one non-stop flight, arriving there this morning.
So now we have three loons on the move. Two others are still down south....one on the Atlantic Coast and one on the Gulf of Mexico.
There are four other loons that have problems with their satellite transmissions. They apparently are all alive but are not consistently transmitting data that will permit good pinpointing of their locations. Kevin Kenow thinks that this may be due to bent antennas.
Who knows. Maybe when they start moving again we will be able to receive signals from them and find out where they are.
The migration seems to be underway!
What is it that finally triggers them to take off and fly north? What do they sense? What cues and clues are they sensitive to? So many questions and so many more answers that are needed to better understand our loons.
But whatever it is that triggers their migration, they seem to have gotten the signal. Much like "Drivers start your engines!" at a car race.
Their 'engines have started' and they are on their way.
Every day now gets more and more exciting!