Additional Monitoring

In addition to sampling for Hg, each captured adult loon is weighed (to determine gender), measured, and uniquely marked using combinations of plastic color leg bands, accompanied with a federal metal leg band. The banding of loons provides a reliable field method to re-observe individuals over many years and to track whether or not they are returning to their breeding lakes each summer. Additionally, banded loons are occasionally encountered alive or deceased on their non-breeding areas. A recovered banded loon provides important information on that individual’s or possibly, an entire breeding population’s wintering range.

Of the 19 loons previously banded on this project’s lakes in Quebec, two loons, each from 31-Mile Lake, have been recovered. A male banded in 1999, was found dead on December 31, 2001 at Ormond Beach, located on the Atlantic coast of Florida. The other loon was accidentally caught and drowned in a fishing net on October 2, 2013 on 31-Mile Lake. This loon was a male banded in 1997 and was recovered 13 years later, which means this loon would have been at least 17 years old when it died.