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A Summer Icon, the Common Loon, Stays for the Winter

February 09, 2010 - PORTLAND -- Even in the dead of winter, Portland Harbor is a lively place.

You can watch fishing boats, oil tankers, harbor seals, loons ...

That's right, Maine's common loon, the iconic bird that's heard crying across remote, moonlit lakes in the summer, spends its winters in the ocean. And there is a healthy winter community of the birds right at the edge of Maine's most urban waterfront.

"There's a loon right there," Bill Gette said, standing on the Portland Fish Pier one morning this week. As Gette pointed, a small troop of birdwatchers huddled around him and aimed their binoculars at a large, dark bird floating on the harbor and holding a crab in its beak.

Gette, a naturalist with Mass Audubon, was leading a birding excursion along the Maine coast. Portland Harbor was his first stop.

"This is a great place to start," Gette said as he pointed out common eider ducks, red-breasted mergansers and Iceland gulls mingling with the harbor seals and fishing boats – and loons.

"We see them all over the place," said Mark Usinger, who watches the loons as he delivers supplies to visiting ships from Hobson's Wharf. "They're big birds and they're not afraid of us."

The loons swim right around the boats and wharfs, he said, so close that a three-pronged fishing hook was seen hanging from the beak of one.

Their presence in the industrial harbor seems at odds with their better-known lifestyle in the summer, when loons tend to be solitary and shy and sometimes struggle to raise their young.

"They go right to the bottom, picking those crabs off the bottom. They don't seem to have any trouble surviving," Usinger said. "Even that one with a hook in his mouth, he doesn't seem to be handicapped."

Loons are survivors in both seasons, the experts say. But in many ways, winter loons are very different creatures.

Even their appearance changes. The vibrant black-and-white feathers that loons have on postcards and license plates is their summer plumage, ideal for courtship and breeding season. In winter, loons are gray and drab, and look more like big cormorants.

Their behavior changes, too.

In summer, loons pair up and protect their territories, which might be an entire pond or one section of a large lake. They aggressively defend their nests, which they build right at the edge of the water.

The loons' familiar yodeling calls and haunting nighttime cries are their way of communicating with their mates and protecting their territories.

In winter, when their young have grown, the empty-nesters are more care-free, hanging around in flocks and mingling with all kinds of other birds and animals. They don't wail or cry because there's no need.

"When they're in breeding season, they'll chase other birds and even kill other birds, like ducks, that come into their territory," said David Evers of the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham. "In the winter, they're not (territorial). They're social and happy."

Loons eat mostly fish, whether from lakes or the ocean. But crabs are the most visible part of their winter diet.

"Most food items that loons eat are eaten underwater. The only exceptions are items that are too big or too awkward to eat underwater," Evers said. "You always see them eating crabs (because) they can't swallow them underwater."

The fact that some loons hang out in Portland's busy harbor isn't surprising to the experts.

"A lot of Maine loons are adapted to people," said Susan Gallo of Maine Audubon.

Some birds spend summers in lakes that are busy with boats, fishing tournaments and water skiers, she said.

"But then you go to a remote lake in northern Maine, and you put in a canoe on one end of the lake and loons at the end other put out alarm calls. ... It all depends on which loon."

The loons in Portland Harbor may well be the people-oriented birds that summer in southern Maine.

Loons can live 30 years and tend to return to the same wintering habitat each November or so. As soon as the ice melts, they return to the same lakes to reclaim their summer territories.

Young loons, however, spend two full years in the ocean before flying inland for the summer.

Most of the world's loons tend to migrate south in winter. Not Maine's loons, which simply head east to their favorite bay or cove.

"Maine loons are Maine loons," said Evers. "It's fairly unique."

It probably has something to do with the fact that Maine loons are larger than most, he said. They can weigh as much as 16 pounds.

"As a big loon, you can't make that long flight," Evers said. "If you're a loon and you live in Maine, you're flying over to the coast."

And if you don't mind a little company, Portland Harbor could be just the place for you.

JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald, February 6, 2010


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Regions: Sebago


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