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43-526: LoonWatch, a program of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, protects common loons and their aquatic habitats through education, monitoring, and research. Though their primary focus is Wisconsin, their education and research activities extend to Upper Great Lakes region, such as Michigan and Minnesota. The Watch also lends support to North American conservation efforts by working with loon conservation organizations across

86-704: A barrister and became a Doctor of Civil Law in 1832. Vigors was a co-founder of the Zoological Society of London in 1826, and its first secretary until 1833. In that year, he founded what became the Royal Entomological Society of London . He was a fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Society . He was the author of 40 papers, mostly on ornithology . He described 110 species of birds, enough to rank him among

129-400: A group of aquatic birds found in much of North America and northern Eurasia . All living species of loons are members of the genus Gavia , family Gaviidae and order Gaviiformes . Loons, which are the size of large ducks or small geese , resemble these birds in shape when swimming. Like ducks and geese, but unlike coots (which are Rallidae ) and grebes ( Podicipedidae ),

172-499: A long history of combining programs, workshops, and outreach activities to assist with environmental protection and restoration in the Lake Superior region. Working collaboratively with private landowners, businesses, public agencies and tribal governments Northland College faculty, staff and students utilize a unique interdisciplinary approach to assessment, monitoring and planning. This collaborative approach provides services to

215-406: A necropsy of a bald eagle found floating on a Maine lake (beside the floating body of a loon chick) found that the eagle had been stabbed through the heart by an adult loon's beak. Biologists , especially from Chapman University , have extensively studied the mating behaviour of the common loon ( G. immer ). Contrary to popular belief, pairs seldom mate for life . Indeed, a typical adult loon

258-433: A spear-shaped bill. Males are larger on average, but relative size is only apparent when the male and female are together. In winter, plumage is dark grey above, with some indistinct lighter mottling on the wings, and a white chin, throat and underside. The specific species can then be distinguished by certain features, such as the size and colour of the head, neck, back and bill. But reliable identification of loons in winter

301-474: A tour of La Pointe. Residential trips :Available to sixth-grade students, the two-and-a-half-day excursion begins by boarding an Apostle Islands Cruise Service boat in Bayfield, bound for Stockton Island, home of base camp for the next two nights. During the course of the trip, students will work on developing cooperative skills, participate in group cooking, explore Lake Superior, discover the natural history of

344-500: Is a model partnership of 24 volunteer members from various sectors including small businesses, environmental organizations, industry, Native Americans, First Nations and academia. Its purpose is to provide input and analysis to the governments about critical issues relating to Lake Superior such as discharge of toxic substances, pollution prevention and restoration efforts. The members are also responsible for developing creative new strategies for eliminating pollutants and contributing toward

387-608: Is also found in tubenoses ( Procellariiformes ) and penguins (Sphenisciformes), both relatives of the loons. Loons are excellent swimmers, using their feet to propel themselves above and under water. However, since their feet are located far back on the body, loons have difficulty walking on land, though they can effectively run short distances to reach water when frightened. Thus, loons avoid coming to land, except for mating and nesting. Loons fly strongly, though they have high wing loading (mass to wing area ratio), which complicates takeoff. Indeed, most species must run upwind across

430-481: Is likely to have several mates during its lifetime because of territorial takeover. Each breeding pair must frequently defend its territory against "floaters" (territory-less adults) trying to evict at least one owner and seize the breeding site. Territories that have produced chicks in the past year are especially prone to takeovers, because nonbreeding loons use chicks as cues to indicate high-quality territories. One-third of all territorial evictions among males result in

473-423: Is often difficult even for experts – particularly as the smaller immature birds look similar to winter-plumage adults, making size an unreliable means of identification. Gaviiformes are among the few groups of birds in which the young moult into a second coat of down feathers after shedding the first one, rather than growing juvenile feathers with downy tips that wear off, as is typical in many birds. This trait

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516-566: The Late Miocene . Study of the interrelationships of the extant species has found that the red-throated loons are the most basal of the five species. Gavia stellata G. arctica G. pacifica G. immer G. adamsii † Gavia egeriana † G. schultzi † G. howardae G. stellata † G. brodkorbi † G. paradoxa † G. moldavica † G. concinna G. arctica G. pacifica † G. fortis G. adamsii G. immer Nearly ten prehistoric species have been named to date in

559-529: The Late Pliocene of Orciano Pisano , Italy , is known from a cervical vertebra that may or may not have been from a loon. If so, it was from a bird slightly smaller than the common loon . Older authors were quite sure the bone was indeed from a Gavia and even considered G. concinna a possibly junior synonym of it. This is now regarded as rather unlikely due to the quite distinct range and age. The Early Pliocene Gavia skull from Empoli (Italy)

602-495: The quinarian system . Vigors was born at Old Leighlin , County Carlow , in 1785. He was the first son of Capt. Nicholas Aylward Vigors, who served in the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment , and his first wife, Catherine Vigors, daughter of Solomon Richards of Solsborough. He matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford , in November 1803, and was admitted at Lincoln's Inn in November 1806. Without completing his studies, he served in

645-502: The smew ( Mergellus albellus ). This small sea-duck is quite unrelated to loons and just happens to be another black-and-white seabird which swims and dives for fish. It is not likely that the ancient Romans had much knowledge of loons, as these are limited to more northern latitudes and since the end of the last glacial period seem to have occurred only as rare winter migrants in the Mediterranean region. The term gavia

688-658: The Apostle Island Cruise Service. The Apostle Island School hosts two different outdoor-educational experiences. Day Trips :Available for both fifth and sixth-grade students, the day is spent on Madeline Island in search of the island's history, natural ecosystems, geological formation, and growth/development of the historic town of La Pointe. The day includes a ferry ride, visitation of the Madeline Island Historical Museum or Big Bay State Park, Grant's Point Beach, and even

731-601: The Northland College Outdoor Education Department and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. For 19 years, the program curriculum and instruction has been led by outdoor education students at Northland College as part of their senior capstone. The Apostle Island School program works in collaboration with the Northland College Outdoor Education Department, the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, and

774-1121: The South Baltic and directly over land to the Black Sea or Mediterranean. Loons can live as long as 30 years and can hold their breath for as long as 90 seconds while underwater. Loons are migratory birds, and in the winter months they move from their northern freshwater lake nesting habitats to southern marine coastlines. They are well-adapted to this change in salinity, however, because they have special salt glands located directly above their eyes. These glands filter out salts in their blood and flush this salty solution out through their nasal passages, which allows them to immediately consume fish from oceans and drink saltwater after their long migration. Loons find their prey by sight. They eat mainly fish , supplemented with amphibians , crustaceans and similar mid-sized aquatic fauna . Specifically, they have been noted to feed on crayfish , frogs , snails , salamanders and leeches . They prefer clear lakes because they can more easily see their prey through

817-639: The United States and Canada. LoonWatch, it's Advisory Council, and volunteers are all working toward common goals of loon conservation and protection. In 1974, inspirational conservationist and writer Sigurd F. Olson won the John Burroughs Medal for his book, Wilderness Days. Since 1992, and in the spirit of celebrating Sigurd's literary legacy, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute (SOEI) at Northland College has recognized remarkable environmental adult literature that attempts to capture

860-569: The army during the Peninsular War from 1809 to 1811 and was wounded in the Battle of Barossa on 5 March 1811. Though he had not yet completed his studies, he still published "An inquiry into the nature and extent of poetick licence" in London in 1810. He then returned to Oxford to continue his studies and achieved his Bachelor of Arts in 1817 and Master of Arts in 1818. He practiced as

903-573: The bones of frogs and salamanders. The gastroliths may also be involved in stomach cleaning as an aid to regurgitation of indigestible food parts. Loons may inadvertently ingest small lead pellets, released by anglers and hunters, that will contribute to lead poisoning and the loon's eventual death. Jurisdictions that have banned the use of lead shot and sinkers include but are not limited to Maine , New Hampshire , Vermont , Michigan , some areas of Massachusetts , Yellowstone National Park , Canada , Great Britain , and Denmark . Loons nest during

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946-1032: The community and hands on engagement for our students. Current projects cover a spectrum that includes environmental monitoring , outreach education, community-based research, planning, and restoration. Specific examples: Monitoring Wisconsin Department of Transportation: Roy Johnson West Wetland Mitigation Bank, Wal-Mart Supercenter stormwater basin, John F. Kennedy Memorial Airport Wildlife Hazard Assessment Wisconsin Department of Transportation: Beartrap Creek Wetland Mitigation Bank groundwater. Outreach Education Brickyard Creek Learning Walks, Citizen Based monitoring, Tree Campus USA, Ecological Restoration Community Based Research Watershed Management: Bay City Creek, Brickyard Creek, Geospatial Interpretation, Multimedia Learning, Green Infrastructure Planning and Restoration Bony Lake shoreline restoration, Beartrap Creek Wetland Mitigation bank, Private Land Stewardship, Fish Creek Watershed Project. The Lake Superior Binational Forum

989-590: The death of the owner; in contrast, female loons usually survive. Birds that are displaced from a territory but survive usually try to re-mate and (re)claim a breeding territory later in life. In 2020, a loon hatched for the first time in over a century in Southeastern Massachusetts at Fall River, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and Biodiversity Research Institute. The chicks were relocated in 2015 with

1032-1209: The eggs are lost, the pair may re-nest, usually in a different location. Since the nest is very close to the water, rising water may induce the birds to slowly move the nest upwards, over a metre. Despite the roughly equal participation of the sexes in nest building and incubation, analysis has shown clearly that males alone select the location of the nest. This pattern has the important consequence that male loons, but not females, establish significant site-familiarity with their territories that allows them to produce more chicks there over time. Sex-biased site-familiarity might explain, in part, why resident males fight so hard to defend their territories. Most clutches consist of two eggs, which are laid in May or June, depending upon latitude. Loon chicks are precocial , able to swim and dive right away, but will often ride on their parents' back during their first two weeks to rest, conserve heat, and avoid predators. Chicks are fed mainly by their parents for about six weeks but gradually begin to feed themselves over time. By 11 or 12 weeks, chicks gather almost all of their own food and have begun to fly. In 2019,

1075-601: The foundation of a sustainable economy. Apostle Island School is an environmental education program aimed at providing regional youth with an outdoor experience to increase students' awareness of both the regional history and the wide array of local resources of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and Lake Superior. Island School runs each May and is held on various islands in the Apostle Islands archipelago. Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute started developing this unique learning experience in 1985 in cooperation with

1118-404: The future nest site, and build their nests close to the water, preferring sites that are completely surrounded by water such as islands or emergent vegetation. Loons use a variety of materials to build their nests including aquatic vegetation, pine needles, leaves, grass, moss and mud. Sometimes, nest material is almost lacking. Both male and female build the nest and incubate jointly for 28 days. If

1161-531: The genus Gavia , and about as many undescribed ones await further study. The genus is known from the Early Miocene onwards, and the oldest members are rather small (some are smaller than the red-throated loon ). Throughout the late Neogene , the genus by and large follows Cope's Rule (that population lineages tend to increase in body size over evolutionary time). List of fossil Gavia species List of fossil Gavia specimens "Gavia" portisi from

1204-743: The genus Gavia . It has been suggested that the genus Gavia originated in Europe during the Paleogene . The earliest species, G. egeriana , was found in early Miocene deposits in Dolnice in the Czech Republic. During the remainder of the Miocene , Gavia managed to disperse into North America via the Atlantic coastlines, eventually making their way to the continent's Pacific coastlines by

1247-414: The genus name to refer to grebes, while Europeans used it for loons, following Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Richard Bowdler Sharpe . The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature tried to settle this issue in 1956 by declaring Colymbus a suppressed name unfit for further use and establishing Gavia , created by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1788, as the valid genus name for the loons. However,

1290-494: The head droops more than in similar aquatic birds. Male and female loons have identical plumage , which is largely patterned black-and-white in summer, with grey on the head and neck in some species. All have a white belly. This resembles many sea-ducks (Merginae) – notably the smaller goldeneyes ( Bucephala ) – but is distinct from most cormorants, which rarely have white feathers, and if so, usually as large rounded patches rather than delicate patterns. All species of loons have

1333-534: The hopes of re-establishing breeding and nesting patterns. The European Anglophone name "diver" comes from the bird's habit of catching fish by swimming calmly along the surface and then abruptly plunging into the water. The North American name "loon" likely comes from either the Old English word lumme , meaning lummox or awkward person, or the Scandinavian word lum meaning lame or clumsy. Either way,

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1376-554: The loon's toes are connected by webbing . The loons may be confused with the cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae), but can be distinguished from them by their distinct call. Cormorants are not-too-distant relatives of loons, and like them are heavy-set birds whose bellies, unlike those of ducks and geese, are submerged when swimming. Loons in flight resemble plump geese with seagulls ' wings that are relatively small in proportion to their bulky bodies. The bird points its head slightly upwards while swimming, but less so than cormorants. In flight,

1419-506: The name refers to the loon's poor ability to walk on land. Another possible derivation is from the Norwegian word lom for these birds, which comes from Old Norse lómr , possibly cognate with English "lament", referring to the characteristic plaintive sound of the loon. The scientific name Gavia refers to seabirds in general. The scientific name Gavia was the Latin term for

1462-582: The region, learn about the geological formation of the region, and participate in a multitude of games. http://www.superiorforum.org/ http://Northland.edu Loon Family-level: Colymbidae Vigors , 1825 (but see text ) Colymbinae Bonaparte , 1831 (but see text ) Urinatores Vieillot , 1818 Urinatoridae Vieillot, 1818 Urinatorides Vieillot, 1818 Genus-level: Colymbus Linnaeus , 1758 (but see text ) Urinator Lacépède , 1799 Loons ( North American English ) or divers ( British / Irish English ) are

1505-451: The situation was not completely resolved even then, and the following year the ICZN had to act again to prevent Louis Pierre Vieillot 's 1818 almost-forgotten family name Urinatoridae from overruling the much younger Gaviidae. Some eminent ornithologists such as Pierce Brodkorb tried to keep the debate alive, but the ICZN's solution has been satisfactory. All living species are placed in

1548-527: The spirit of the human relationship with the natural world, and promotes the values that preserve or restore the land for future generations. Since 2004, the SOEI has recognized a children's book of literacy nature writing —nonfiction or fiction—that captures the spirit of the human relationship with nature, and promotes the awareness, preservation, appreciation, or restoration of the natural world for future generations. The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute has

1591-437: The summer on freshwater lakes and/or large ponds. Smaller bodies of water (up to 0.5 km ) will usually only have one pair. Larger lakes may have more than one pair, with each pair occupying a bay or section of the lake. The red-throated loon, however, may nest colonially, several pairs close together, in small Arctic tarns and feed at sea or in larger lakes, ferrying the food in for the young. Loons mate on land, often on

1634-553: The top 30 bird authors historically. He provided the text for John Gould 's A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830–32). One bird that he described was "Sabine's snipe". This was treated as a common snipe by Barrett-Hamilton in 1895 and by Meinertzhagen in 1926 but was thought to be probably a Wilson's snipe in 1945. Vigors lent a skin for later editions of Thomas Bewick 's History of British Birds . Vigors succeeded to his father's estate in 1828. He

1677-489: The water's surface with wings flapping to generate sufficient lift to take flight. Only the red-throated loon ( G. stellata ) can take off from land. Once airborne, loons are capable of long flights during migration. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, who have implanted satellite transmitters in some individuals, have recorded daily flights of up to 1078 km in a 24-hour period, which probably resulted from single movements. North European loons migrate primarily via

1720-419: The water. The loon uses its pointy bill to stab or grasp prey. They eat vertebrate prey headfirst to facilitate swallowing, and swallow all their prey whole. To help digestion, loons swallow small pebbles from the bottoms of lakes. Similar to grit eaten by chickens , these gastroliths may assist the loon's gizzard in crushing the hard parts of the loon's food such as the exoskeletons of crustaceans and

1763-600: Was MP for the borough of Carlow from 1832 until 1835. He briefly represented County Carlow in 1835. Vigors had been elected in a by-election in June after the Conservative MPs originally returned at the 1835 United Kingdom general election were unseated on petition and a new writ issued. On 19 August 1835, Vigors and his running mate, in the two-member county constituency, were unseated on petition. The same two Conservatives who had previously been unseated were awarded

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1806-400: Was referred to G. concinna , and thus could conceivably have been of "G." portisi if that was indeed a loon. The holotype vertebra may now be lost, which would make "G." portisi a nomen dubium . Nicholas Aylward Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Irish zoologist and politician . He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of

1849-523: Was transferred from the ducks to the loons only in the 18th century. Earlier naturalists referred to the loons as mergus (the Latin term for diving seabirds of all sorts) or colymbus , which became the genus name used in the first modern scientific description of a Gavia species (by Carl Linnaeus ) in 1758. Unfortunately, confusion about whether Linnaeus' " wastebin genus " Colymbus referred to loons or grebes abounded. North American ornithologists used

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