HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 20, 1988 - The Plight of the LoonFocus
on Nature The Plight of
the Loon By
Paul Stoutenburgh When sailing the other day I was
glad to see that loons have returned to
our local waters after spending their
summer on some lonely lake far to the
north. Should any of you have been lucky
enough this summer to get to the northern
states or Canada, I hope you had the
opportunity to see and hear these old friends
on their
breeding grounds. These loons are expert divers
and from now until next spring they will
be found along our bays, sound and
ocean fronts. Somehow they manage to find enough
to eat along the dimly lit bottoms to
keep them through the long
winter months. Loons are big birds that would
rather dive than fly, for their streamlined
bodies and powerful feet make them
experts under water. They can stay submerged for
a con- siderable time and often, when
chased, only bring their head out of the water for
a quick breath before returning to
safety below. In summer, in their
breeding plumage, they are handsome with their
glossy black head and neck and white collar. The
back is speckled black and white while
the throat and underparts are white. Now,
in their winter plumage, they become
more drab with mottled gray above and
white throat
and underparts. I'm sure you've all heard
the expression crazy as a loon." It comes from
the call the loon makes, which I think is
one of nature's most thrilling wild sounds
and not at all a crazy call. I can remember
this call from when I was a small boy
and entertain- ed myself by calling across
the glass - mirrored bay to loons feeding. I was
in a rowboat, lying on the bottom so
the birds couldn't see me and as a loon would
call I would
mimic it. Calling Back
and Forth In their quiet world across the
bay they would answer with their
strangely lilting call. As they answered, I'd answer
and soon they were all around my boat. I was
in a world of my own. As I peeked over
the gun- nel of the boat I could see the
long, pointed bill so essential for
their underwater fishing. Up close I could see how
large they were, somewhere between the size of
a duck and a goose but without the
long neck associated with the latter. It was
a wonder- ful and memorable experience to be
able to call and communicate with
these master callers from across
the bay. Loons are not on the hunting list
of ducks but I'm afraid many are shot at
by the uneducated hunter. What saves
them is their aloofness and their mistrust
of man. When approached, they usually
dive, com- ing up a good distance away. They do
not fly spontaneously as other ducks do
when try- ing to escape but rather they
disappear to safety below, leaving
the
pursuer bewildered. Loons are having a difficult
time in today's world. As mentioned
before, they nest on the remote and lonely lakes
to the north and we know how few of these
are left, what with man's intrusion with his
array of motorized vehicles. This coupled
with their need of a plentiful supply of Fish —
a supply that is being diminished in our
lakes and rivers by acid rain— accounts for the
loon'
s
nlioht. 137 Should the loon make it
through the nesting period, it faces the curse
of oil spills, plastics of all sorts along the
sea bot- tom where it feeds and, of course,
man's uneducated gun. Being at the top of
the food chain, the loon accumulates all
sorts of pesticide residues that
have concentrated in the food it eats. No wonder we'
re seeing fewer and fewer of these
handsome
winter visitors. Good and Bad Days
of Fall September and October can be
the most beautiful time of the year and yet
because it is also the hurricane season and
the time when the north wind starts to
test its strength, it can also be a
pretty uncertain time of the year. Already we have
had frost in the center of the island.
Manorville and Ridge are often cooler by ten
degrees than we on the
East End. This is because of the salt
water that practically surrounds us, giving us
that ad- ded edge of warmth. It's one of
the primary reasons the grape industry is able to
do so well out here. We have feast
a growing season that is at least a month
longer than upstate. Just last week friends of
ours down from Maine said their trees
had turned already and ours haven't really
started as yet. Yet there are some things, if
you look closely, such as the Virginia
creeper and poison ivy that have turned
their reddish fall color. The sarsaparilla
and false Solomon's seal in our woods have
lost their green and turned
to yellow. Baby turtles that developed
during the warmth of summer are now feeling
for the first time the chill of the air.
Being cold - blooded it takes them a long time
to warm up before they get into motion. I'
m sure their instinct has told them on
these cooler days to start looking for a place
to hiber- nate. They'll find a soft spot in
the woody duff of the forest floor while
water turtles will burrow into the muddy
bottom where they'll stay over while the
winter roars above. During this long sleep
their heart- beat will hardly be noticeable. They'
ll seem to be almost dead until spring
triggers
them awake. Winter
Takes Over The outdoors is mustering
itself for winter. Soon the leaves will fall
and become part of the mulch that nurtures
the forest. The lifeblood of sap will stop flowing
and as the north winds blow through
naked bran- ches, the trees will rest
until spring. Winter once more will rule the
woods till the sun starts to climb up closer
and closer, back to the north, and once again it
will
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