Go Looney at the Annual Walker Lake Loon Festival

Come celebrate the twice a year migration of loons at Walker Lake's Sportsman’s Beach at the twelfth Annual Walker Lake Loon Festival on Saturday, April 16, 2005. The festival is complete with presentations, food, prizes, and fun.

Loons make Walker Lake a stopping point during their twice a year migration. In springtime, the lake makes a perfect resting spot for the loons to feed, rest and prepare for their journey north to Canada.

NDOW will offer the public the chance to get a closer look a the loons with free barge or boat rides beginning at 9 a.m. Also, the public can listen to Native American storytellers and various wildlife presentations throughout the day.

“This is a great event to celebrate the non-consumptive watchable wildlife in Nevada,” said Jenni Jeffers, NDOW Western Region non-game wildlife biologist. “The Loon Festival provides a wonderful opportunity for NDOW to interact with the public and share the wonders of the loons in addition to other migratory birds and wildlife at the lake.”

The festival has had great success in the past with approximately 300 visitors from Nevada, California and other areas stopping to partake in the festivities. Visit the Walker Lake web site for more information:

All About Loons.....

The life of a loon

The common loon winters all along both coasts of North America, from as far north as the upper tip of the Aleutian Islands to as far south as the southern tip of Florida. It is most commonly found along the Pacific coast from southern California north to Vancouver Island and along the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastlines, and the eastern Gulf coast.

By the time loons reach Walker Lake, beginning in late March, they have exchanged their gray winter feathers for a more striking ensemble. Attendees of the Loon Festival should keep their eyes open for birds with black-and-white checkered backs, glossy black heads, white bellies and wing linings, and white necklaces around their throats.

Loons on the Water, Underwater and in the Air!

Loons are accomplished divers, and in some rare instances have been documented to dive underwater for more than three minutes to depths of 200 feet. Barring these extreme dives, average dives range from a few seconds to a minute. Their grooming practices, known as preening, smooth the feathers with the bill and distribute oils through the feathers. This preening locks the feathers together to form a waterproof covering over the warm inner down, keeping the birds warm and comfortable during their diving endeavors.

A Common Loon on Walker Lake Credit: Mike Sevon

The birds are not just diving for the fun of it. Loons swim with their heads down in the water, eyes scanning for any fish of reasonable size that swims into view. Then, it’s “look out fishie,” as the loon torpedoes downward propelled by its streamlined body and large feet to catch its meal. This diving dexterity is also useful in times of danger, as the loon dives underwater away from predators and surfaces its bill only to get a breath and then dives back under the water.

While loons are stars in the water, land-lovers they are not. Their streamlined water body is not well-suited for solid ground and their set back legs make walking, or in their case, shuffling, even a few feet quite the awkward balancing act. Taking flight for these heavy birds is also more of challenge, and they may need to run on the surface of the lake for up to 500 feet to get air bound.

Once up in the air, and well on their way north, loons keep their eyes open for lakes to rest and fish. They will fly long distances at speeds of up to 90 miles an hour on the winds. They fly in loose flocks, in no particular formation, often a large distance away from one another. They use a certain bird call during migration to maintain contact.

The Call of the Loon

There are four main loon calls - the wail, the tremolo, the yodel and the hoot and each call serves a distinctive purpose. The wail, a very loud call that carries for miles, is the most frequently heard call of the loon and is used often at night when one loon is trying to locate another. The tremolo, three to ten even and rapid notes, may indicate alarm due to a disturbance such as a human, a predator or another loon and sounds similar to human laughter. The individually unique yodel is used only by males to defend territory and sounds like a long, rising call with repetitive notes in the middle. Lastly, the hoot is a one-note call used by family members to locate each other and check on their well-being.

The Daily Grind

Credit: USFWS

Loons arrive on northern lakes in the spring as soon as the ice thaws to find their mates and court among swimming and diving. After breeding, loons build their nests close to, or surrounded by, water. Usually two eggs are laid in June, and toward the end of the month the eggs hatch. Until recently, loons were thought to mate for life. Banding studies have shown that loons will sometimes switch mates after a failed nesting attempt, even between nestings in the same season.

Loons spend their time hunting, feeding, resting, preening, and caring for young. The life expectancy of the loon may be 15-30 years. At night, loons sleep over deeper water, away from land for protection from predators.

Studying the Loon

Nevada Department of Wildlife has conducted migration counts of the loons at Walker Lake since 1988. Beginning in 1997, NDOW has participated in cooperative loon studies with researchers from Boise State University and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that resulted in the attachment of tiny radios to loons captured at Walker Lake. By using satellite tracking technology biologists were able to follow these loons during their migration from this area to their breeding sites in Canada. This study opened biologists' eyes when they determined that the four loons that were tracked all the way to their breeding destinations all chose sites within 60 miles of a certain lake in Saskatchewan, Canada.

“Those odds are pretty compelling, considering the loons were randomly selected from about a thousand birds” NDOW biologist Larry Neel said. The results show a significant link between Nevada’s threatened Walker Lake and the breeding area in Saskatchewan, Canada, and emphasize the biological importance of stewardship across borders.