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."

June 14, 2011 -- Flag Day -- On Leech Lake

Once again I awoke this morning with the hope that Peterson Excavating would be here working on the harbor restoration and once again they were a no-show. I called Butch the lead guy on the project and he told me he was on the side of the road because his truck broke down. When I pressed him if he thought he'd be able to finish the harbor this week his response was, "I hope so." Not exactly the kind of answer that instills confidence.

It would have been a perfect day to work on the harbor too. The temperature at 10:00 a.m. was 62 degrees, the wind was light at 8-10 mph out of the south, and the sky was mostly cloudy, with a few patches of blue here and there. With the warmth this morning, it's actually starting to feel like we might get summer after all.

Most of today I spent doing chores around the properties, including lots of cleaning and tending to the trees and plants I planted a couple of weeks ago.

As the day wore on the temperature climbed to the mid-70s, the sky cleared to almost no clouds at all and the wind remained steady at about 10-12 mph out of the south.

By 3:45 p.m. I was ready to go fishing. I pushed the boat off the lift and positioned the boat for a drift in front of the house. Using a 1/8 Gumball jig tipped with fatheads I caught several perch and a couple of rock bass. But I was on a mission to catch at least two more eater-sized walleyes; so I moved to a new position.

I took up in front of Norm's cabin and let the southerly wind push me north toward Schiebe's and out into deeper water.

I also made the decision about half way through the drift to switch from a fathead to a leech, after all, I caught the 17-inch walleye yesterday on a leech. I continued to catch perch and rock bass. Then I felt that familiar weight of a walleye. I set the hook, reeled the fish to the boat, slipped the net underneath the fish and brought a very solid 16 1/2-inch walleye into the boat. As soon as the fish was measured it went into the livewell where it will join the walleye I caught yesterday in an eventual meal for my parents and Kathleen.

Apparently the walleye are biting on leeches; at least the last two I've caught have been on leeches. But I used the last of the leeches today, so tomorrow I may drive into Cass Lake and pick up a couple of containers of the large leeches from Froggy's Sports.

With another walleye in the basket, I decided not to go fishing tonight.