Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:03am

55 degrees  Partly Cloudy   Wind NE3mph

Another update on the satellite tagged loon from Minnesota, the one from Lake Sagatagan.

He has now moved to Lake Michigan just east of Racine, WI! 

Here is a map of his migration route [you can get a large view of the map by clicking on the thumbnail below and opening in a new window]: 

Now it gets more and more exciting!

Monday, October 18, 2010 2:19pm

 

60 degrees  Partly Cloudy  Wind N2mph

 

I am sorry that I do not have time for a more detailed update and it has been a while since I updated you.  I will try to say more in the next few days.

 

But I wanted to give you an update that I just received about one of the Minnesota loons that we surgically implanted with a satellite transmitter.

 

He has finally left his home lake [Sagatagan Lake]  and has flown east about 75 miles and was on Forest Lake in eastern Minnesota on Sunday.  [As you will remember from before, the other Minnesota loon with a satellite transmitter was found dead on Green Bay of Lake Michigan.  He died from aspergillosis which is a fungal disease which overwhelms the loons respiratory tract in the lungs.]

 

I assume that this will be just a stopover on his way to Lake Michigan but that is pure speculation on my part.

It will be interesting to see how long he stays on Forest Lake and then if he actually goes to Lake Michigan or takes some other route.

 

Interestingly, in order to get to Forest Lake from Lake Sagatagan, he probably flew right over the lake where you have watched the loons on the LoonCam!

 

And speaking of "our loons", I have not seen any loons here since about the middle of August.

 

I will try to update you more later but I wanted to give you this update.  The loon tracking page should be updated in the next few days and will probably show this movement of the Sagatagan loon.

 

http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/migrations.html

 

May you have a wonderful day and enjoy these beautiful days of fall!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010 4:15pm CDT

61 degrees   Cloudy   Wind E 6mph

The yellows of ash trees and the reds and oranges and golds of maple trees are now starting to come out of hiding.

It definitely is a sign that fall is on its way.  In fact it will be here officially in a few hours.  At 11:13pm tonight fall officially begins.

This beginning of fall is unusual in that tonight there is also a full moon....the Harvest Moon.  This is the first time since 1991 that a full moon has fallen on the autumnal equinox.  So if you are in an area with a clear sky tonight, you should see a spectacular sight.  It is also a perfect time for you to find out what is exact east and exact west.  For this day and the beginning of spring (vernal equinox) are the only two times of the year that the sun rises in the exact east and sets in the exact west.

Here in Minnesota we will probably not see the sunset tonight nor the Harvest Moon rising.  It is cloudy and heavy rain and thunderstorms are forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  Some of the forecasts are saying that we may get 3 to 4 inches of rain tonight.  So it will be a wet one.

There is not much more to tell you about our loons here.  I have not seen nor heard them for over a month so I think they have moved on.  I have been traveling a lot so they may have been around some but most of the other people on the lake tell me that they have not seen them either.

It does not surprise me that they left early since neither of the eggs hatched this year.  That freed them up from all the responsibility of feeding and raising chicks.  So our loss was probably their gain.

Now we are at the time of year when fall migration is in full swing for so many birds, including our loons.

I expect that many of the loons are already on larger lakes in the area, gathering with other loons on these "staging lakes" before beginning their migration.

If you have not already seen it, the map is now "live" on the USGS website to track the loons with the satellite transmitters.  The address is 

http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/migrations.html

For those of you who may not have been following the story, let me recap.  Last summer I had the privilege of being part of a project to catch and band some Minnesota loons.

In addition to banding, we surgically implanted satellite transmitters in two loons (we had hoped to do three but we "ran out of night").  We also placed data recorders on the legs of some other loons.

These satellite transmitters and data recorders will track the loons on their migration this fall and hopefully their migration north next spring.  There is a chance that they may actually still be operating to track their migration in the Fall of 2011.

The website above will let you track them as they migrate and to know where they go during the winter.  Locations will be updated a couple times a week.

In addition to the 2 loons in Minnesota with satellite transmitters, there are another 8 loons in Wisconsin that had transmitters implanted.

Already three of the loons have moved to Green Bay on Lake Michigan within the last few days.  So the migration has begun.

In addition to the 3 loons currently migrating, there is a fourth loon where tragedy struck.  I mentioned it in my last entry.  On Thursday, August 26th the Minnesota loon from Stumpf Lake was found dead on Lake Michigan in Green Bay.  He probably died on the day that I was writing my August 25th update.  So we never know what the loons are going through at any given moment.

The necropsy that was done on the loon has pretty definitively determined that it was due to aspergillosis, a fungal infection of the lungs that loons are especially susceptible to.  There did not seem to be any problems with tissue around the surgery site where the transmitter was implanted.  There is a slight possibility that the stress of the surgery had an impact but I personally do not believe that it did.  The death was well over a month later so I think that possibility is very slim.

Now we will watch the other loons to see what happens.  Remember, you can check out the latest location of the 5 loons as they migrate on the USGS website.  It is already very interesting that all four loons have gone to Green Bay on Lake Michigan.

Now we have confirmation that the loons are on the move.  This is a typical time for adult loons to start their migration....mid-September to mid-October.  Then the chicks will follow about a month later.

It has been several weeks since I have seen any Baltimore orioles at the jelly feeders and fewer and fewer hummingbirds.  Monarch butterflies are well underway with their migration as also.

We spent last week along the North Shore (of Lake Superior).  It is a beautiful part of the state and we had spectacular weather.  Check out the Naniboujou Lodge for a beautiful and unique place to stay.

We also were able to go to Hawk Ridge in Duluth.   Every fall hundreds of thousands of hawks fly over Hawk Ridge.  The terrain, with Lake Superior on one side and the hills along the shore on the other, forms a natural 'funnel' that brings hawks through this area on their way south.  The record is over 100,000 hawks recorded on one day!  And we are at just about the peak of hawk migration through this ares.

Enjoy these beautiful fall days and wonderful color.  And treasure each and every moment with all the wonders of nature around us.  Let it fill and revitalize your soul and your spirit.

And keep track of the loons as they migrate south.

Thursday, September 9, 2010 11:08pm CDT

 

57 degrees   Light Rain   Calm

 

After so many days of heat and humidity over the last couple months, there is definitely a feel of fall in the air.  Chilly fog filled mornings.  Grass covered with heavy dew.  And we are almost to the autumnal equinox when we have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night.

 

The days change so quickly at this time of year.  Where only a month or two ago, it was not dark until almost 10 o'clock, now it is dark by 8pm.

 

Along with all the other signs, the fall migration has begun.  Delicate beautiful monarch butterflies are on their phenomenal journey of over a thousand miles.  I have not seen any orioles at the jelly feeder for a couple weeks so I assume that they are on their way as well.

 

And our loons.

 

I have not seen nor heard them for several weeks.  I have been gone a lot and not had much chance to be out on the lake, but I would have expected to see or hear them at some point.  So I have to assume that they are also preparing to fly south.

 

Normally loons will gather in large groups called 'rafts' as they prepare to begin their fall migration.  They gather on large  large lakes called staging lakes.  These may be some of the larger lakes in the area or they may be one of the Great Lakes.  The Great Lakes are a apparently a major area for the gathering of loons.  But there is so much that is unknown about loon's migration patterns and needs and about their wintering habitat and behavior.

 

That is one of the reasons for the study that Kevin Kenow from the US Geological Service is doing on the migration of loons.  The original purpose of the study was to try to determine how and where loons were picking up the botulism toxin that has killed so many over the last ten years.  There have been upwards of 80,000 water birds killed on the Great Lakes and several thousand loons have been killed by botulism.

 

As I have mentioned before, I was privileged to be a part of the team that captured some Minnesota loons for the study.  We surgically implanted satellite transmitters in two loons which will allow them to be tracked as they migrate south this fall as well as when they migrate north next spring.  Eight loons in Wisconsin were also implanted with these satellite transmitters as well as 80 loons in Minnesota and Wisconsin that were outfitted with data recorders on their legs that will record where they migrate as well as how deep they dive.

 

All of this information will help to try to determine how they are picking up the botulism that is killing them.

 

You are probably familiar with "botox" which is used for cosmetic surgery.  Botox is the same botulism toxin that is killing loons.  In small quantities that are used in cosmetic surgery, the botox paralyzes facial muscles that cause wrinkles in the skin.

 

But in larger quantities in a loon, the botulism toxin causes muscle paralysis....especially of the neck muscles of the loon.  The loon is then not able to hold its head up and it drowns.

 

Some of you are already aware that sadly one of the two loons in which we implanted a satellite transmitter was found dead on Lake Michigan.

 

He left his home lake on the St John's campus earlier than any of us expected.  He was tracked by satellite travelling over to Lake Michigan.  So far there was no cause for great concern.

 

But then one day, the satellite data showed a low body temperature of 21 degrees Centigrade (about 70 degrees).  Kevin tracked the satellite data throughout the day as the loon drifted to the SSE on Green Bay of Lake Michigan.  He drove all the way over there and was able to find the loon on the shore.  Unfortunately it was dead.

 

The big concern was what had killed it.  Was it a casualty of botulism?  Or had something else happened?

 

A necropsy done by the National Wildlife Health Center since then has determined that the loon probably died from "chronic severe respiratory and systemic aspergillosis".  We have talked about aspergillosis (just called asper for short) before.  Loons especially do not do well in captivity.  When under stress of captivity they tend to develop asper.  This is true of some other birds as well but loons seem to be especially susceptible.

 

There are other tests being done on the air sacs of the loon's lungs for fungal cultures to try to determine more information of what happened with this particular loon.

 

A couple people have asked me if the death could be related to the surgical implanting of the satellite transmitter.  That is always an area of concern when you do something like that.  But the good news is that it did not have anything to do with it.

 

First of all, the death was a month-and-a-half after the capture of the loon and the implant surgery.  If there had been a direct connection, you would expect that it would have happened much closer to the time of the capture.  So that argues against a direct connection.

 

But also the necropsy showed that the tissues around the implant had healed and "did not appear to be adversely affected".  So that argues against the surgery and the implant having had a negative effect on the loon.

 

So now we await further information from the necropsy to find out what actually happened with this particular loon.  And hopefully we can learn from this unfortunate event.

 

I have been told that the link to track the loons by satellite hopefully will go live next week.  As soon as I have any information about it, I will try to give you a link.  And then you can track the loons yourself as they head south this fall.  How exciting will that be!

 

This part of the study will help us understand what route our loons take to their wintering grounds and what happens to them when they get there.  In light of the Gulf oil spill, this information takes on added urgency.

 

The best information that we have now is that loons from the Upper Midwest and central Canada may go equally to the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.  This would be one year where it would be nice if ALL of them went to the Atlantic Coast.  But we shall see what the satellite data tells us.  And you can be a part of observing this first hand!

 

Most of the loons from New England and eastern Canada go to the Atlantic Coast from Nova Scotia down to North Carolina.  So they should be safe from the Gulf oil spill.

 

There continues to be relatively good news coming out of the Gulf.  Most of the oil has "disappeared".  Now we know that it has not disappeared but at least it is not causing the major problems that had been forecast.  No one has a definitive answer yet about what has happened to it.  But it is thought and hoped that microbes in the Gulf have been eating it and 'neutralizing' it.  Let us hope that turns out to be the case and that the negative impact has been greatly diminished.  That would be wonderful news for our loons.

 

So right now loons all across the northern tier of states and Canada are now  gathering and beginning their migration south.  Typically the adults leave sometime between the middle of September and the middle of October.

 

Then in one of the many miracles of nature the young from this year leave about a month later and migrate from the middle of October to the middle of November.   Having never been to the Gulf or the Atlantic, they find their way on their own.  Another one of the miracles of nature that we do not understand at all.

 

So soon the great north country once again falls silent without the magical calls of the loons.

 

All through the winter we have only our memories to carry us through the silent months as we await the return of our loons next spring.  What will the spring hold for us and for the loons.  There is no way of knowing.  All we can do is wait and hope.

 

And then on that day that the ice goes out of our northern lakes, the wonder and excitement that we feel when we once again hear that first call of the loon.  That magical sound that stirs something so deep within us that it is even hard to describe.

 

The sound of the north!

 

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:34am CDT

 

65 degrees  Partly Cloudy  Wind NNW 13mph

 

 

It has been a while since I last updated things for you but then there is not much to update.

 

It has been a number of days since I have heard or seen the loons.  But then I have been gone a lot and have not been out on the lake in a number of days.

 

When we last talked, there was the question of whether there was a 'dead loon' on the lake.  There has been no evidence of that and therefore I hope that the report was not true and was just a misunderstanding of some kind.  I have looked a couple times and numerous other people have also been looking.  If there had been something, I would expect that we would have found something.  But then nature also has a way of "cleaning up" after itself.

 

I would like to tell you definitively that I have just seen both loons and that they are both doing well.  I think they are doing well.  But I can't make such a statement since I have not seen or heard the loons today.

 

A couple weeks ago a lady on the lake asked me, "Is it just me or are our loons quieter this year than they have been in the past?"

 

I told her that yes they have been quieter than what we have been used to for years.  But that it is completely normal for that to be the case.  For two reasons.

 

First, at this time of year loons do become less vocal when they no longer have chicks to protect as much as when they are small.  And secondly, as they move out of the breeding/nesting season, they also become less territorial and therefore call less.  

 

So though we enjoy and revel in the calls of the loons, even the quiet can be a good sign that all is well.  It makes our loons even more special when we are given the privilege to hear them and see them for that all too brief window of time.

 

So once in a while over the last couple weeks, I have heard that wonderful, beautiful, haunting call floating across the lake at dusk or in the night.  But it has become unfortunately more of an exception rather than the rule.  They may already be gathering in large groups called "rafts" as they prepare to fly south for the winter.

 

As many of you already know, one of the loons in which we surgically implanted a satellite transmitter is already apparently on his way for the fall migration.  As of last week, he was on Lake Michigan near Green Bay.  This is both good and bad.  It is good because part of the reason for implanting the satellite transmitter is to try to find out why loons and other birds are being killed by botulism in the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan.  But that is also the bad part....the possibility that the loon may pick up botulism poisoning in Lake Michigan.

 

I think it surprised all of us that he headed out that early.  I know it surprised me.

 

I would have never thought that a loon that had chicks would have left them that early in the season.

 

I would have been surprised that one of "our" loons, who did not have chicks this year, started its fall migration that early.  But for a loon with chicks, it was something that I would have never anticipated.  But then it just shows how little we truly know about loons.

 

And that is one of the great promises of having implanted these loons with satellite transmitters and attached data recorders to others.  Hopefully it will add yet more small pieces of information to our knowledge about loons until one day all the pieces add up to give us a more complete picture of these magnificent birds.  We all owe a great deal to Kevin Kenow and the US Geological Service and Carroll Henderson and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for all that they have done to make this happen.

 

I look forward to their fall migration with great hope and some trepidation.

 

A part of me wants to hope that they all go to the Atlantic coast this year to avoid the Gulf oil spill.  But even though that is what my heart tells me, my head tells me that they should do exactly what they would normally do so that we can learn from it.

 

I continue to be very encouraged by the news coming out of the Gulf....even though much of it is conflicting.

 

When the government told us a few weeks ago that 75% of the oil was gone and that it had just "vanished", I said that it had NOT 'vanished'.  Something happened to it.  If it indeed was gone, we needed to understand exactly what happened to it.  If indeed it was still there but just hidden in some way, we needed to understand that as well.

 

Then the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute said that they had found huge plumes of oil and that there was no way that 75% had just disappeared.  But it turns out the plumes that they had found were way back in June, not current plumes.

 

Today the latest encouraging news is "New microbe discovered eating Gulf oil spill...'Great potential' for dispersing oil in deep sea, researchers report".  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38834330/

 

I am one who believes that the earth and the environment are amazingly capable of dealing with so much more than we give them credit for.  And that in the whole scheme of things, man in pretty insignificant.  We have known for decades that there are microbes and bacteria that eat oil.  But now they seem to have discovered a new microbe that is even more efficient at eating oil.  This should not surprise us since oil leaks out of cracks in the bottom of the ocean all the time.  And that there is 'something' that takes care of it.  Otherwise we would be awash in oil.

 

The only thing that is amazing is that man thinks he know everything.

 

I have little time for the alarmists on either side of the spectrum.  Unfortunately, many of them use a disaster like this to raise money or to make political points.  Neither of those is helpful. 

 

What is needed is a calm, measured response to determine what the truth and what the facts are. Then we can learn.  And then we can better understand what is actually happening.  We tend to want to step in and think we are in control.  And by doing so, only make matters worse.

 

In fact, let me say something here that might be controversial.

 

Over the last few months, I have had several conversations with different organizations that move in to help 'clean up' and wash birds and other animals caught in oils spills.  The "dirty little secret" is that the washing does very little good.  I had heard that before but with the current oil spill it took on new meaning. 

 

It has been know for some time that most of the birds that are washed end up dying down the beach anyway.  I read one statistic that said on average it cost $50-60,000 per bird that was 'rescued'.  (I have trouble believing that figure, too.)

 

I asked why they did it when they knew that it probably was not going to help and that the bird would die anyway.  They said, "Because people expect us to do something."

 

It might be time for a dose of reality for all of us and to realize that that money would be better spent elsewhere.  But even when I say that, I know that if I was standing there and watching something covered in oil struggling to survive, every fiber of my being would scream to do something.  To do ANYTHING!

 

As a side issue, let me mention something else.

 

I noticed that someone mentioned something about the wonder of monarch butterflies and their migration.

 

But I think that they left out the most amazing part of all!

 

As most of you know, there is an area in central Mexico that monarchs migrate to and spend the winter.  Monarch butterflies by the millions hanging in the trees.

 

But you may not know that there is another area like that here in the United States!

 

Most of the monarch butterflies from east of the Rockies go to this area in Mexico.  But most of the monarchs from west of the Rockies go to a small grove of eucalyptus trees in Pacific Grove, California.  The area in Pacific Grove is much smaller than the one in Mexico.  It is not much more than a square block in size.  But during the winter months, monarchs hang by the millions in the eucalyptus trees of this grove.

 

At first glance, they just look like dead leaves in the trees.  But then as the sun begins to warm them, they spread their wings and become a storm of bright orange fluttering wings.

 

It was in this grove that I first learned some years ago of the great miracle of the monarchs.

 

Let me try to summarize it from memory (so excuse me if I do not get every fact exactly right).

 

Monarchs go through 5 or 6 generations during the course of the year.

 

Each generation lives only about one month during their migration and during the summer.  But then as they approach the fall migration, THAT particular generation lives for 6 to 8 months!  Yes, you read that right!  Each generation lives for only a month.  UNTIL the generation that is to migrate south and overwinter.  That generation lives for many, many times as long as any of the other generations!!

 

The same species.  The same butterfly.  The same everything!  Except the length of life.

 

It is as if you lived to be 80 years old.  As did your grandparents and your parents.  And your children.  And your grandchildren.  But then all of a sudden, your great-grandchild lived to be 400, 500 or even 600 years old!!  And then their children once again lived to be only 80 years old.

 

So that one generation lives to migrate south to Mexico, survive the winter and start the migration north the next spring!

 

Call it whatever you want.  Call it nature.  Call it ________.  I choose to call it a miracle.  And one that we do not understand at all.

 

Most of the material about monarchs alludes to this and the information is there if you dig deep enough.  But very few resources lay out in plain English this phenomenon of the generations of the monarchs.

 

We think we know so much and that we are so smart.   And yet anyone who is honest, would say that the more he knows the more he realizes how LITTLE he knows.

 

Just like our loons.  We know so very little about them.

 

So we continue to study.  And to research.  And to learn.

 

And to stand back in utter amazement of all the miracles that have been put around us.

 

May you take some time today to stop and look. And think.  And ponder. And understand.  And marvel.  And step back in amazement at the wonderful world around you and all the miracles that we take for granted!