Looking for loons: P.E.I. researchers, photographers search for the iconic birds

They may be small in number, but loons on P.E.I. are attracting a lot of interest both from photographers and researchers.

The Island Nature Trust is tracking the birds, doing monthly surveys at locations where they have been seen or heard in the past.

Loons are actually pretty much silent all through the winter and they only get vocal during the breeding season.— Bbrendan Kelly

"The first one and the easiest one is basically just to go to an area and look for loons and just see if you can actually see them or hear them," said Brendan Kelly, a forest bird technician with Island Nature Trust.

"We've done that at several different locations."

The researchers searching for loons also set up minnow traps, to get a better idea of the food resources available to loons at those locations and deduce if food is a factor in attracting them. 

"Some of the locations have loons and some locations don't have loons but we think maybe they should have loons," Kelly said.

Sometimes heard but rarely seen

Kelly said the work is very preliminary but loons on P.E.I. seem to prefer water with higher diversity in aquatic life, such as leeches, dragonfly nymphs and different species of small fish.

Island Nature Trust has found loons at DeRoche Pond and around Lake Verde in eastern P.E.I., on freshwater lakes and ponds.

They've also heard some loons in western P.E.I., near Alaska, and Kelly said there is a habitat that would suit loons on the Percival River.

Kelly has heard from Islanders who have seen or heard loons, including one resident who had a pair of loons on a lake near his home.

"He told us about them and said nobody believed that he had a pair of loons on his little lake," Kelly said. 

"Sure enough, he did have a pair of loons and so he was pretty proud to be able to share that with us and that was one of the places that we included in our study."

Could be a dozen or less

It's hard to predict how many loons there are living on P.E.I. but Kelly said from what they have seen there are fewer than six pairs of loons that nest or attempt to nest on P.E.I.

"People are fascinated by loons but you just don't get to see them very often and you … rarely get to see a pair of loons that appear to be hanging out in one area," Kelly said.

Bird photographer Dale Murchison of Montague was thrilled this June to find a loon on a pond along the 48 Road in eastern P.E.I.

"I was kind of excited to see it, my hobby is bird photography," Murchison said.

A friend had tipped off Murchison that he typically hears loons on the pond during the summer.

"I looked last fall no luck — but this spring, bingo," Murchison said.

He would still like to photograph the loons again and said he'd especially like to get a shot of a young loon on the back of its mother or father.

"That would be a fun one to get," Murchison said.

There is a special appeal to the loon, he said. 

"It's a very pretty bird, especially in its breeding plumage," Murchison said.

"There probably is some romance surrounding the call of the loon."

'Enticing to loons'

Island Nature Trust installed a nesting platform for loons on DeRoche Pond this summer. 

"We're really trying to leave it alone and not go near, to leave it as enticing to loons as possible," Kelly said.

"Usually in the summer after breeding, loons do scope out future nest sites so we've been keeping a low profile in that area and just letting the loons do what they do."

Winter sightings

Loons do spend the winter in waters around P.E.I.

In the winter, when the lakes and ponds freeze, loons from across North America overwinter off the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada.

"We see them here around P.E.I. because there is lots of food in the marine area, certainly lots of habitat out there, and so they're able to congregate out there in fairly large groups during the fall and winter," Kelly said.

However, the birds moult and don't actually look much like loons.

"If you've seen them in the fall and winter, you might not actually recognize that it's a loon because they become a drab grey colour," Kelly said. "They lose their black and white plumage, and they'll get that again in spring just as they come into land again to nest."

'Silent all through the winter' 

Loons in the winter are also much quieter.

"They don't really have a reason to be vocal in winter," Kelly said.

"Loons are actually pretty much silent all through the winter and they only get vocal during the breeding season when they're claiming territories and communicating with mates."

The team from the Island Nature Trust plans to keep doing monthly loon surveys for the rest of the summer.

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