BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
LOON IS A LOON — IS A LOON?
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
What the heck is a loon anyway? Is it some sort of a nutty person? Does it all tie back to the full moon? Do people act loony near the end of the lunar cycle?

Common Loons

Heck — this is a bird column. So we must be talking about a bird. And yes — this one is a loon. Turns out the word goes back to the old Scottish ‘loom’ from which is derived ‘lame.’ Loons are so named because they are very awkward on land, appearing lame.

Now as the title implies, there are loons and then there are loons. Oftentimes we see loons in the harbor and these are big ‘battleship’ loons, officially known as Common Loons. This week’s loon is usually seen along our ocean beaches and it’s called the Red-throated Loon, Gavia stellata, literally a ‘starry gull.’

Like so many names this one has a legacy. The great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus, who came up with our way of naming things scientifically back in the mid-1700s, suggested Colymbus, Greek for ‘diving bird.’ One can only guess why Captain Cook’s protégé, Johann Reinhold Forster, changed it to the more inappropriate Gavia decades after. Later, Nuttall named a tern for Forster, so I guess everything has worked out okay. Thomas Nuttall now has one of our nation’s most prestigious bird clubs named for him and my dear friend, Edith Andrews, is a member. Sort of connects us all back to the early days of scientific discovery.

Of course you are now picturing a striking loon with a red-throat. Erase that image, please, before you search for a Red-throated Loon. Redthroats are not as large as the big, goose-sized Common Loons we see in the harbor. But they aren’t small, either — over two-feet-long with a wingspan approaching four feet. In winter, they are mainly dark above and light below. You can see from the illustration that the ‘starry’ part of this bird refers to the white spots on its back. That is a Common Loon in the background.

As Roger Tory Peterson points out, Redthroated Loons have a “sharp, thin bill, distinctively uptilted.” I remember reading that as a beginning bird student and thinking it didn’t sound very useful. Couldn’t a Common Loon look upward as well? But once you see a Redthroat, you realize how good a tool this is. ARedthroat’s bill turns up even when it is looking down! It is also more slender and graceful than the Common’s bill.

Loons are diving birds. In Europe, this bird is the Red-throated Diver. They dive and catch fish underwater. Most of the time they propel themselves with their feet but can use their wings for a burst of speed as well. They can swim faster underwater than a man can run trying to chase them along the shore. A typical dive may last longer than a minute.

Loons’ feet are placed so far back on their bodies that when on land they are quite awkward standing. Red-throateds differ from the other loons in that they can actually land and take off from solid ground. If a Common Loon finds itself away from water, it can never again take flight — a very sorry situation.

Nantucket is a great place to see Red-throated Loons, at least in winter. “Birding Nantucket” shows them as common from mid-December until the end of April. In winter, they are much more a saltwater bird than other loons are, so almost the whole North American population hangs out along the Atlantic or Pacific coast. Depending on the severity of the winter, they head as far south as Florida.

In summer they head into the Arctic where they build a simple grass nest on the ground and lay their two eggs. The chicks have the charming habit of riding around on Mom or Dad’s back, even hanging on when it’s necessary to dive.

They often migrate in pairs and it’s possible that a particular pair may stay together for years. Since a Red-throated Loon may live more than 20 years, ‘mating for life’ may have some meaning. People frequently ask me if this or that species mates for life, but that’s kind of an irrelevant question when a creature only lives a few years.

So do they ever get red throats? Well, yes they do. Unfortunately we seldom see the phenomenon on Nantucket. The molting process is late enough so most head north before the color appears. But when it does, it is quite a striking shade of red, limited to the very front of the throat.

Although it’s not hard to find a Red-throated Loon diving close to shore along our ocean beaches, they are not holding up well in our increasingly polluted world. Oil spills and loss of nesting habitat have caused a population decline of over one half in Alaska in the past 20 years. Global warming and damage to the permafrost will only make things worse in the nesting regions. Enjoy these graceful slim-beaked birds

while you can. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy ‘social’ birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information.

To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@ comcast.net