Red-throated loons photographed off Beverly Shores (Porter County, IN) in November 2007 by John Cassady.
The Illinois Beach State Park hawk watch shuts down Thanksgiving weekend and the same is generally true of the Miller lake watches. The idea is that the bulk of the migration is over by then, and whatever procrastinators remain don’t warrant the effort. But this fall, there never really was a great flight day on the lake. We had not yet experienced the frigid blasts that drive the hardy birds south. A number of us were convinced that one good cold front could still prove exciting. And December 3 seemed like the day.
Despite the years that I have been birding it seems inevitable that I am never quite dressed warm enough for the first cold spell. After a summer and fall, I am usually one item shy of what I need. It might be the heavy sweater, a second pair of gloves, or the gator. And Miller is especially challenging. I am known by friends as one who rarely if ever gets chilled. I have been out in minus 25 degrees without a problem. But generally, when out in the field one is neither stationary, nor facing into the wind. After a few hours of sitting, however, the discomfort eventually begins to creep in. Two years ago during a windy and snowy lakewatch in late November my hands became so cold I had trouble manipulating my fingers at the level necessary to open the car and turn the heat on. Fortunately, the car was not very far away and there were other people around, but that kind of chill is disconcerting.
With all that in mind, I had long underwear and jeans topped by insulated pants (so many layers over the nethers means that caffeinated beverages should be avoided- indeed all fluids should be avoided) and five layers over my torso. I was going to be ready. I arrived at Miller at 6:15, forty-five minutes before sunrise. A half-hour later the first birder showed up. It was the gentleman I wrote about in an earlier posting who suffers from that strange malady that only strikes during autumn cold fronts. I will call him Arthur, or Art, for short. He had a two hour drive and had also spent time thinking about the right apparel for what promised to be a windy raw day. Jeff McCoy and Ken Brock arrived soon thereafter. Eventually. Michael Topp and John Kendall appeared as well. Great minds think alike (or great masochists throb alike). Yep, some really good birders assembled with visions of alcids, pomarine jaegers, and eiders dancing in their heads.
Let us start with the positives. Hypothermia was never an issue, as the temperature was not as low as predicted nor was the wind as strong. As for the birds, I would not call the day a total flop, although Ken did not deem the results worthy of posting. We had 50 common loons and 11 red-throated loons, of which there was 1 adult, 3 juves, and 7 not aged. (At one point I swore I heard someone yell, “Jew.” In response, I yelled “Missouri Synod Lutheran.” It sounded that way to Art as well, but he concluded correctly that the word being shouted was “juv.”).
Red-throated loons on the Indiana lakefront have increased substantially over the last 23 years as illustrated by a graph provided by Ken Brock (but which I seem unable to transport into this post). From 1986 to 1995 there were never more than 20 and in some years none. Over the next five years the annual count jumped to around 50 birds, except that in 1999 there were 75. Since then, the increase has been in steps from around 100, to over 175, to this past year when red-throated loons reached an amazing high of 425.
I asked Ken why he thinks the red-throated loons have become more common here. He has thought about it a good bit but has arrived at no satisfactory conclusion: “As this pattern slowly developed (over the years) we thought it was simply more birder experience (i.e., being able to identify the loons in flight), more birders on the lakefront, and/or better optics. Although these factors might well have contributed to the increase, I am convinced there are more loons today than in previous years. However, I cannot explain where they came from. Red-throateds might have altered their migration path (or wintering grounds, as we get lots in December) or perhaps the population has actually increased.”
The best bird of the day was red-necked grebe. Jeff spotted one close in to shore flying to the west and an hour or so later someone else found a bird flying in the opposite direction. Ken treated the sightings as having involved the same individual. Other noteworthy totals were 114 redheads, 82 greater scaup, 124 lesser scaup, 7 dark-winged scoters, and 11 horned grebes. By eleven am, the birding group began to break-up, knowing in their hearts that the birds were still to the north somewhere.
Post script: And they were correct. The first severe winter storm of the season hit on Wednesday December 9. Ken, Jeff, and another birder did venture out and were treated to a massive movement of waterfowl estimated at over 10,000 ducks. Ken posted what they saw on IN-BIRD: “The morning temperature was 11 degrees F with west winds at 20-25 knots. The lake was decorated by rising steam, the local equivalent of Arctic sea smoke, which limited visibility. However, hoards of ducks were migrating through the steam. We counted almost 2000 ducks, but able to identify only about 20 percent of the passing birds.” Unfortunately, among the birds they did identify, there was nothing particularly noteworthy.
