How Do Loons Know When the Ice is Off the Lake?

This is borrowed from blogger Dan Baughman who writes from Bow Narrows Camp on Red Lake in northern Ontario, Canada.




"Although total ice-out is still days away on Red Lake, loons will have already landed in all the open patches of water around the edges.

In fact, as soon as you notice the ice is gone from a small bay or narrows, you will see the familiar profile of a loon. But you never see loons flying around the frozen lake looking for open water.How they know there is some place to land is a mystery. Loons cannot land on anything but water. Their legs are placed far back on their body making it impossible for them to even stand up on land.

In fact, except for pushing themselves on their bellies a foot or two onto and off of their nests, loons never touch land.Their leg placement -- sort of like propellers at the rear of their bodies -- makes them take off from the water just as a floatplane does. They always head into the wind for the added lift and both churn their powerful feet as well as flap their wings against the water. It can take them a hundred yards to get airborne. Once free of the water, they are powerful fliers and fly faster than most other waterfowl.

They also land like a plane. They set their wings and come gliding in like the Space Shuttle. Final touchdown is done on their bellies. Sometimes they will dip a wing into the water to make a fast turn. And, also like a float plane, it takes far less room for them to land than take off.So when they slide into a little patch of open water around the edge of a frozen lake, it is very likely they cannot take off again, until the ice melts some more.

I've often wondered if some of them ever get frozen-in when the temperature dips below freezing and the lake refreezes. If it happens, I've never seen it, or found their bodies in the spring.Loons are the world's oldest bird. They've been doing this for tens of millions of years. I guess they know what they are doing by now."