Saturday, August 7, 2010 8:03pm CDT

 

84 degrees  Hot and humid  Calm

 

I have just returned from paddling part way around the lake.

 

We are under a tornado watch until 1am.  Not a warning but a watch.  The heat and humidity have returned tonight and are supposed to be with us for the entire week.

 

This afternoon at a gathering of residents of the lake, a couple people told me that they heard that one of our loons was dead and what could I tell them about it.  I told them that it was the first I had heard about it and didn't know anything about it and of course I hoped that it was not true.

 

I have been gone most of the last couple weeks but I immediately thought about when I have seen a loon, it has been only one and not the pair.  However, at the same time, that is not at all unusual this time of year especially when they do not have chicks to protect.  But the thought immediately crossed my mind.

 

Then a couple other people told me that they had been out on the lake last night and saw only one loon!  They said they didn't think anything about it because they often see one loon and then see the other one on some other part of the lake.  But they said last night they saw only one loon.

 

So my level of concern went up a little bit.

 

Finally I was able to have them point out the person who told them.  When I talked to him, he told me that a couple days ago he saw a dead loon floating out in the lake.

 

As I questioned him, he was absolutely positive that it was a loon and that it was dead.  My level of concern went up.  He gave me a fairly clear picture of what part of the lake he had seen the dead loon.

 

If it was true that one of our loons had died, what had caused it?

 

Was it illness?  Injury?  Lead?  Fishing line?  Being hit by a boat or jet ski?  The questions came flooding over me.

 

Was it one of "our" loons or was it one of the other loons that we have seen on the lake this summer?  We have seen up to six loons on the lake at one time this summer.  Could it be one of them?  There was no way to be sure.  Even if I could recover the carcass, there was no way of knowing for sure which loon it was.

 

So tonight, I headed out in the canoe to paddle the shoreline to see if I could spot a dead loon.  Hoping that I would not!

 

As I pulled away from the dock, there sat one loon watching me.  Not too far from the spot where he and I had sat and watched each other at length a few nights ago.  He sat.  And I paddled.  Not know what I would find.  Hoping that I would find nothing.  Afraid that I might find 'something'.  

 

I had brought along a large garbage bag in case.  I didn't relish the thought of picking up a dead loon that had been in the water for a couple days in this heat.  But I knew it was important to determine the cause of death in case I found a dead loon.  So I brought the garbage bag with me.

 

I paddled among the weeds along the shore.  Looking for something.  Anything.  A flash of white.  A patch of black and white spots.  Anything.

 

As I went along the shore, I talked to several neighbors and told them what I was doing and what we had been told this afternoon.  And asked them to keep an eye out for anything that might wash up on shore.  Everyone was concerned but no one had seen anything.  But all of them promised to watch.

 

After going about half way around the lake (the area where it would have most likely washed up) and finding nothing, I turned and headed for home....still carefully watching for anything that might be a dead loon.

 

Shortly before I got back home, a jet ski pulled up to me.  It was one of the neighbors.  He had gone with his boy all the way around the lake.  He said that he had seen TWO loons.  One on the other side of the lake and one not too far from where we were right then.  That was the loon I had seen when I had pulled away from the dock and he was swimming in almost the same spot.

 

But what a relief it was that he had see another loon on the other side of the lake.  Then his little boy said, "Dad, I saw a third one on the other side of the lake, too."

 

So I am not sure what to tell you.

 

On the one hand there is somewhere who is absolutely positive he saw a dead loon a couple days ago.  On the other hand(s), I saw one loon tonight and this neighbor saw two loons tonight and his boy maybe saw a third loon.

 

Since you so faithfully have followed these loons, I wanted you to be the first to know of this.  We will keep watching and looking.  And hopefully NOT find a dead loon.  But if anything more develops out of this, I will be sure to let you know.

 

So for tonight, I "think" our loons are ok.  And I look forward to hearing their calls tonight.  And for many nights to come!

 

 

Thursday, August 5, 2010 11:01pm CDT

66 degrees   Clear   Calm

[I want to thank all of you for letting us know about the Tall Ships in Duluth!!  I think it was Tess that first mentioned them being in Cleveland....excuse me if it was someone else who first mentioned it.  That was the first that I had heard that they were there and were coming to Duluth.  So on the spur of the moment we went to Duluth to see them and spent the last several days there.

AND....we were actually able to sail on the Roseway as it led the ships out to the start line and started the next leg of the race.  It was awesome.  And the crew on the Roseway are really a great bunch of people doing great work with kids.  I saw the Roseway leave port early this morning and it was almost like watching family leaving.

So THANK YOU to all of you for letting us know about the Tall Ships!!

They are tentatively scheduled to be back in Duluth in 2013 so maybe all of you should plan on coming to Duluth for it!]

I had promised you some time ago to say a little more about the oil spill in the Gulf but have held off since there is so much that is unknown.  And probably will be unknown for some time.

I will probably make everyone mad since I am at neither extreme....I am somewhere in the middle.  There are those on either side who are trying to use this to their own advantage.  Some would have you believe that this is no big deal.  And others would have you believe that this is Armageddon and that we should never pump another drop of oil anywhere.  In my humble opinion, both are absolutely wrong.  The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.  I do have a science background but I certainly claim no expertise or great insight into this problem.

I have read some reports that 80% of our waterfowl, including loons, will die this winter and never return.  I think that is a huge overstatement.  Or at least I hope that it is.  But we will not really know until this fall and winter.  And there is absolutely nothing we can do to prevent them from migrating down there.  Someone said to me 'can't we just capture most of the loons and hold them here this winter'?

First of all, it would be impractical and impossible to capture a significant number of loons.  And secondly, even if we could capture a number of them, we would be sentencing them to a certain death because loons do not do well in captivity at all.  We have talked about that before.

They become easily stressed in captivity.  When they are under stress, they develop a condition called aspergillossis.  A fungus called aspergillus just explodes in the lungs of loons (and a few other birds) when they are under stress in captivity.  And it is almost always fatal.  So even if it were possible to do something like that, it would be totally counterproductive.

Let us just hope that the cleanup continues.  We still have 2 or 3 months before the migrating loons get down to the Gulf.  So a lot can still be done.  It is just unfortunate that so much was allowed to make it to shore where it is doing the most damage.  However, for our loons, they will not spend much time either on shore or along the shore.  So that is the good news.

However, the big unknown is how they will react to whatever oil is still in the water.

One of the little known facts is that most birds that are 'rescued' and washed with soap ultimately still die in spite of all the well-intentioned efforts.

Now, we have gone from the news reports being that it is an unmitigated disaster that can't be reversed to "we don't know where the oil went".

Once again, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.  Neither as bad as they have been saying for the last several months nor as good as they seem to be saying now.

The reports the last few days are that 33% of the oil was recovered or disposed of but that the other 66-75% simply 'disappeared'.  I'm sorry, it did not 'simply disappear'.  Something happened to it and it is important for the future to more fully understand what that 'something' was.

I personally believe the earth and the oceans are much more capable of dealing with things that we give them credit for.  There are all kinds of microbes and little 'beasties' that actually love to eat oil.  After all, oil is simply another form of hydrocarbons like the hydrocarbons in your compost pile that microbes explode in and love to eat.  There is oil seeping from the bottom of the ocean all the time all around the world.  We just never see it and these little creatures take care of it.  Now I am not saying that the 'seepage' is the same magnitude in a concentrated area as this spill...but the earth is constantly seeping oil.  Totally apart from what man ever does.  The big unknown is how the earth deals with a large concentrated spill like this.

So the news that they are having trouble 'finding' the oil is very encouraging.  Much of it may have already been taken care of naturally.   But in my mind the jury is still way out on this yet.

This would also fit with something that I mentioned sometime back.  You will remember that everyone was very concerned about what would happen if a hurricane hit this area and stirred up the water and the oil.  I told you about hearing one of the chief meteorologists for The Weather Channel say that this could possibly even be a "good thing".  His feeling was that a hurricane would act like a giant mixmaster and break the oil up into smaller pieces that the microbes could digest more easily.

Let us hope that we have some VERY HAPPY microbes in the Gulf right now eating at the best buffet that they have ever had!

Also encouraging is that government inspectors have said that they are not seeing any of the oil show up in the Gulf seafood that they have examined.  Let us hope that continues since loons are almost exclusively fish and seafood eaters.

If that is true, that would be a huge plus for our loons when they come down to the Gulf this fall.  If there is no oil contamination showing up in the sea food, that is a very positive thing for our loons.

The other danger for the loons is if they get oil on their feathers.  That will destroy their insulation and waterproofing.  So those are probably the two biggest threats to loons.

The other unknown is how it has already affected the 3 years of immature loons who are still on the Gulf right now from previous hatches.  They are the ones who have faced the greatest threat so far.

But so far there is no firm data.  There is one report that I read a couple weeks ago that 17 dead loons have washed up on shore.  But there was no data that any of them were killed from the oil.  Apparently most of them were 'natural deaths'.  Once again, I am not saying that none of them have been killed by the oil.  We just need to be careful in our numbers.

One thing that you need to be cautious of is some of the reports that you will read over the next couple months.  There have been some reports that over 60,000 birds and animals have been killed from the oil spill.  At this point, I don't think that anyone knows the true number.

But the US Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to document every dead bird or animal from the Gulf Coast and every live animal that has evidence of oil.  So far that TOTAL in both categories is less than 5,000.  And of those, the majority of the dead birds and animals have not had any evidence of oil contamination.

So from the confirmed results so far, I am cautiously optimistic on several levels for our loons!

But that is one of the reasons for the research project that the USGS is doing.  From the satellite transmitters that we implanted and the data recorders, hopefully we will be able to get a more complete picture of the migration this fall and a better picture of what happens to the loons on the Gulf this winter.  The good part is that the loons in New England and eastern and western Canada should not be affected at all as they migrate to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

But for now, we can only wait and hope and watch and learn.

Thursday, July 22, 2010 11:46pm CDT

68 degrees   Starlit and thunder  Calm

I just came in a few minutes ago.  The loons out on the lake were calling their beautiful calls.

The moon is almost full.  The stars bright in the sky.  And flashes of lightening off to the west.  And muffled thunder.

A couple hours ago, I had gone down to the lake to wash my hands and arms and legs after doing a lot of work.

One of the loons was sitting only about a hundred feet beyond the end of the dock.  It was good to see him in so close.  He looked wonderful.

I went out to the end of the dock and sat with my feet in the water.

The loon did not move away.  He simply sat and watched me.  And I watched him.  And he watched me watching him.  

I started quietly calling to him to see if he would answer me.  Hoots and quiet wails.  Quiet so that the neighbors would not think I had completely lost my mind!

He didn't answer.  But he didn't swim away either.  We both just sat and enjoyed the moment.  Or at least I enjoyed the moment.

The whole sky above me was completely clear.  The full moon hung just above the trees.  The first stars started to twinkle as we sat there.  Off to the west was a high bank of dark clouds.  Occasionally there was a flash of lightening deep within the clouds.  The sun had set about half and hour before and darkness was quickly settling.  But this was still that magical time of twilight.

What could be more perfect than to add a loon close by on a lake of mirror.

He floated.  I sat.  Both of us content to just "be".  Both of us looking at each other.

What was he thinking?  The nesting platform floated close by.  Did he remember it?  Did he remember me?  Did he recognize me?

This went on for close to half an hour.  Finally I was having trouble making out his silhouette in the shadows of the darkness.  But he was still there.  

Another loon called from across the lake.  I wondered if he would answer.

He didn't answer.  He turned and looked that direction but made no move to swim away.

As I headed up to the house, he was still floating there.

But sometimes moments are too magical and magnificent for words!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 10:11am CDT

 

73 degrees  Sunny   Calm

 

 

These are the days that summer dreams are made of.

 

Unlimited sunshine.  Comfortably warm.  But not hot and humid.  Blue sky from one end to the other.  And even bluer lakes.  'From the Land of Sky Blue Waters'! 

 

And of course, loons.

 

Loons are the exclamation mark at the end of a sentence!

 

Last night, the call of the loons echoed back and forth across the lake.  Wails.  So they were 'good calls' with the loons simply saying 'I am here.  Where are you?'  One wail after another.  A wail on one side of the lake.  Answered by a wail from the other side of the lake.  Over and over.  Beautiful and even more beautiful.

 

I wish you could have been here!

 

I decided to do a second update because I knew you would be wondering about botulism poisoning which I mentioned in the last post and which is part of the loon study.

 

Botulism poisoning has been a problem on the Great Lakes over the last 8 to 10 years with die offs of loons as well as thousands of other birds.

 

Let's start with the very basics and let me share a little bit from my very limited knowledge.

 

Botulism is a serious life-threatening condition caused by a toxin produced by a bacteria.

 

In the absence of air (anaerobic conditions), this bacteria produces one of the most lethal toxins known to man.  Even the smallest amount of this toxin can be fatal to people.

 

Because the bacteria grows and produces this toxin in the absence of oxygen, it is one of the greatest dangers from canned products, especially home-canned goods that are not properly handled and treated with heat for a sufficient amount of time.

 

You may not realize that you are already familiar with this toxin.  It is what is known as "BoTox"!  Botulism toxin.  BoTox is used in small amounts in cosmetic procedures to partially paralyze facial muscles which cause wrinkles.

But BoTox 'treatments for loons are NOT a good thing!

 

Botulism toxin can and has caused the death of hundreds if not thousands of loons on the Great Lakes during their migration.

 

It started about 12 years ago on Lake Huron and then Lake Erie and has spread westward through the Great Lakes over the last few years.  In 2007, there was a die-off of thousands of waterfowl on Lake Michigan, including hundreds of loons.  There is one count that says as many as 2,000 loons may have died in this one die-off!  As of yet, there has been no similar die-off on Lake Superior but the fear is that it is only a matter of time.

 

No one knows for sure why the botulism poisoning happens which produces the subsequent death of loons.  That is why this tracking of loons will hopefully add to our knowledge of what is actually going on.

 

Here is the current theory that is believed to be most likely.

 

There are a number of "invasive species" that have been introduced into the Great Lakes, probably from the bilge water of ocean going vessels from other parts of the world, specifically Europe.

 

Three of those invasive species that seem to be implicated are the round goby, Zebra mussels and especially quagga mussels.

 

Here is the theorized path of how the botulism toxin gets to our loons.

 

As I mentioned, botulism bacteria produce a toxin in the absence of oxygen.  These bacteria are all around us in our environment.  They also exist in the sediment and decaying vegetation at the bottom of lakes.  Quagga mussels are 'filtering' animals as are all clams and oysters and mussels.  That is, they suck water in, filter out 'food' and expel the water.  They also filter out and concentrate some of the 'botox' and concentrate it in their bodies.

 

I can hear you saying 'why doesn't it paralyze and kill them?'  Scientists feel that the quagga mussel's nervous system may be so primitive that it is not affected.

 

The quagga mussel (a non-native species that is new to the United States) concentrates this poison in its body.  Then along comes a small fish called the round goby.  The round goby is also a non-native species that has recently found its way into the Great Lakes.  The round goby eats quagga mussels and thus takes the poison into its body.  It will eventually die from the poison.  But loons apparently love round goby.  It is a fish and loons love fish.  It is a small fish not much bigger than a large minnow.  Loons love that size fish!

 

Before the goby dies, the loon eats the goby and thus the poison now finds its way into the loon's body!

 

And within hours, the loons muscles start to become paralyzed.  It develops a condition called 'limberneck' syndrome.  The muscles of the neck become paralyzed, the loon can no longer hold its head up and it drowns.

 

So if this is a new situation caused or made worse by invasive species, the possible impact on our loons is very serious.  That is why understanding exactly what is going on is so important.  This USGS project and study is part of trying to understand what is going on.  I didn't want to say much about it until the USGS had issued their press release.

 

I hope that this information helps you understand more about what is going on.  And may be the first time that many of you have even heard of this problem.

 

It is yet one more example of the many challenges that our beloved loons face.

 

So, the next time you hear that beautiful call of a loon, remind yourself how truly special it is!  And how it is under constant threat from so many different directions.  Things that we never think about.  Don't let all of the threats overwhelm your view of the loons though.

 

Just sit back and enjoy the "call of the north" and realize what a privilege it is for you to hear the loons!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 9:31am CDT

Here is the official news release about the work done with the loons last week and the implanting of the satellite transmitters.

In addition to monitoring the migration patterns of the loons and what happens to those that go to the Gulf of Mexico, they will be also hoping to learn more information about avian botulism poisoning.  There have been some huge die-offs of loons due to botulism that we can maybe talk about at some point.

- - - - - - - - - - -  -

Loons Tracked by Satellites Will Uncover Mysteries of Their Migration: Tagged Birds Will Shed Light on How Avian Botulism  is Transmitted

Ten common loons are now sporting satellite transmitters so researchers can study the migratory movements and feeding patterns of these remarkable fish-eating waterbirds as they migrate through the Great Lakes toward their winter homes farther south.

By using satellite tracking devices implanted in the loons from Wisconsin and Minnesota, USGS scientists expect to learn essential information about avian botulism needed by managers to develop important conservation strategies for the loon species.  

“This study will also help managers better understand how loons fare as they head to their wintering grounds along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts,” said USGS scientist Kevin Kenow, of the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) in La Cross(sic), WI. “Right now, little is known about habitat use along their entire migratory routes.”

Common loons, a large black and white waterbird with haunting calls, are an iconic species in the Great Lakes states where they are most abundant. Unlike most birds which have hollow bones, loon bones are dense, helping them to dive to depths of some 250 feet in their search for food.

In addition to satellite transmitter-marked loons, about 70 other loons will have geolocator tags, which will record daily location, temperature, light levels and water-pressure data that will log the foraging depths of these diving birds. “This information will help shed light on how avian botulism may work in the food web on the Great Lakes,” said Kenow, the leader of the migration project.

Botulism, which has caused more than 80,000 bird deaths on the Great Lakes since 1999, causes paralysis and death of vertebrates who ingest neurotoxin produced by the botulism bacterium.  The USGS study on avian botulism on the Great Lakes, funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, will examine the pathways by which fish and birds acquire botulinum toxin from Great Lakes food webs and determine how avian botulism outbreaks are related to environmental variables such as water quality and food web structure. Avian botulism outbreaks have resulted in periodic and often huge die-offs of fish-eating birds since at least the 1960s, but outbreaks have become more common and widespread since 1999, particularly in Lakes Michigan and Erie. 

“Understanding feeding patterns and exposure routes of waterbird species at high risk for botulism die-offs, such as the common loon, is central to understanding how botulism exposure happens in the

aquatic food chains in the Great Lakes and to eventually identifying what drives botulism outbreaks,” said Kenow, “Only then, can we help provide tools to prevent or lessen such outbreaks.”

Movement of loons from previous studies carrying satellite transmitters can be followed online at the USGS UMESC website.  Loon movements from the current study will be available later this summer. 

More information on avian botulism can be found at USGS National Wildlife Health Center website

In addition to the UMESC, the USGS Great Lakes Science Center, National Wildlife Health Center and Michigan Water Science Center are involved in the Great Lakes botulism study. The University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Wisconsin and Minnesota Departments of Natural Resources, and St. John’s Abbey and University provided support to various aspects of the migration project. 

 -  USGS