Signs of Spring Update: March 14, 2003
Today's Report Includes:
- Great Lakes Still Too Frozen for Loons
- Get Your Eyes and Ears Ready! Challenge Question #10
- Loony Liftoff!
- Yo! Yodel Studies and Quiz: Challenge Question #11
- Territory Time: Challenge Question #12
- Spring Marches In! Current Happenings
- Oriole Food Chain: Discussion of Challenge Question #8
- Where Energy Comes From: Discussion of Challenge Question #9
Many Lakes Still Too Frozen for Loons
Loons are being seen in a few places, mostly near the coast. Look closely at today's migration map and see how they're progressing.
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Satellite Photo of the
Great Lakes on March 9, 2003. Which lake shows the most open water?
Lake Superior's west end has big open patches, but was cloud-covered
in the photo. Photo by Jeff Schmaltz MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC |
Don Davis, a naturalist in Toronto, Ontario, reported to us on March 13, "About 90 percent of Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie are frozen over. Lake Ontario is open, except around the north shore from about Newcastle, and east past Presqu'ile to the other side of Prince Edward County. This is southern Ontario's 10th coldest winter since 1948. February temperatures were 5 degrees below normal."
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Last Year's Common Loon
Migration Map for March 15, 2002 |
How has the ice on the Great Lakes affected loon migration? The Great Lakes usually open up before smaller northern lakes, and loons gather on the huge lakes and make frequent reconnaisance flights, searching for open water. Sometimes a pair of loons lands on "their" lake minutes after the ice disappears thanks to these flights.
Compare the current migration map with last year's at this time. There are some important difference, especially on the shorelines of the Great Lakes, but so far the differences aren't too dramatic. Do you think the differences between this year's migration and last year's will become more dramatic as the season goes on? Or will the differences average out? Stay tuned! And make sure to report your first loon sighting!
Get Your Eyes and Ears Ready!
Even though it's too early for most of us to see loons, we can still brush up on our loon identification skills! Read the following guides, and then try answering the following question.
- Loon Identification
- Loon Dictionary
Challenge Question #10:
"What are some reasons why loons have a similar body shape to ducks and cormorants? What are some reasons why loon vocalizations are louder and more complex than most duck vocalizations?
(To respond to this Challenge Question, please follow the instructions below.)
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| Clip:
Taking Off! |
Looney Lift-Off
Dr. Walter Piper studies the territorial behavior of loons during their
summers in Northern Wisconsin. He says, "Loons are different from
most species of animals in that they boot each other off of territories,
or kick each other off, with some frequency." Surprised? Walter says,
"I first became interested in 1992 when I learned that more than
two birds were seen on a lake together. This suggested that interesting
territorial behavior might be going on that we didn't know anything about."
What has Dr. Piper learned since then? We'll share more of his research
in upcoming loon reports. Until then, Dr. Piper's video camera gives you
a real treat. It repeats in slow motion, and you'll know what to watch
for with this viewing guide:
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Dr. Walter Piper |
Loons always takeoff upwind, just like airplanes try to. This strategy
maximizes lift, which they badly need for takeoff, as you can see. (Loons
have incredibly high mass for their wing area -- which is called wing-loading.)
As the loon tries to take off, it runs along the surface of the water
into the wind, beating its wings hard. Loons weigh about 8 pounds, but
their wings are the size of the wings of some much lighter ducks. To take
off involves a lot of flapping, and a lot of work. Even with this speed,
there is often not enough air pressure beneath the wings to create "lift"
to get the loon up in the air. If there is a good head wind, that increases
the air pressure under the wings, allowing the loon to get up in the air,
but it doesn't look like there is much wind here. Notice how the film
clip ends with the loon close to the opposite shore. It will have to swim
back and try again. Look carefully at where its feet are, and how hard
it is to lift the body. Notice how as it tries to take off the bird holds
its neck straight out, compared to the curve of its neck when it was swimming.
When loons are in danger, they can either take off or sink into the water
and come up somewhere else. After watching this clip, explain why being
able to dive and swim is very important for loon safety. (Because loons
are so slow to take off that they could be captured by a strong, fairly
fast predator like an eagle. Diving allows them to get away from some
dangers much faster.)
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Photo Dr. F.G.Irwin
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Meet Jay Magers! |
Yo! Yodel Studies and Quiz
After you hear the basic loon calls, will you be ready to test your skills?
If so, we invite you to meet Jay Magers, who studies loon communications,
and see what kinds of challenges his research gives him. Jay lets you
hear AND see yodels he recorded on loon lakes in northern Wisconsin last
summer. Journey North's Jane Duden was privileged to view loons with Jay
and Dr. Walter Piper as they did summer loon research. There was even
a midnight capture and banding session. Both of these scientists have
wonderful things to share with you in upcoming loon reports. You'll see
and hear more later, but for now, listen up for something to yodel about!
If you heard two loons yodeling, could you tell which sound came from a larger loon? Meet Jay and learn some tips for listening to loon yodels:
Then, using the sounds and sonagrams on that page, see if you can be a loon detective!
- Look at the first two sonagrams and listen to the corresponding loon yodels. Which of the yodels is probably made by a larger bird? Why do you think so?
- Listen to the next three yodels. Look and listen for changes in pitch during the yodels. Do these yodels come from more than one bird? How many birds?
- Listen to and look at the next three yodels. Which is given by a different individual?
- Now the biggest challenge. Can you match the last four yodel sounds with their sonograms?
(To respond to this Challenge Question, please follow the instructions below.)
Territory Time
What makes a good loon territory? We humans need food and shelter to survive, and so do loons. Every spring each pair of loons needs to find a lake where they can find a good nesting place, where the food will be abundant enough to support the pair and their two chicks. How do they decide which lake to choose?
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Topographic
Maps from Jay Magers for four lakes he studies. |
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Jay Magers gave us the maps of four lakes in Wisconsin that he has studied. Learn how to judge a lake for quality loon habitat here:
After you've learned how to judge territories from a loon's point of view, answer this question:
Challenge Question #12:
"Which of these lakes (see maps at the link above) would probably make the best loon territory, and why?"
(To respond to this Challenge Question, please follow the instructions below.)
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Male Red-wing. |
Kokomo Schwartz in New Hampton, New York, awoke on March 10 to more than fifty Red-winged Blackbirds. That same afternoon, Felicia Gulachenski, fifth grade teacher at Middle Road School in Hazlet, New Jersey, saw about a hundred blackbirds in her backyard. Redwing calls are one of the welcome signs of spring. If you want to learn how to recognize blackbirds and to hear and understand redwing calls, make sure to see our
Barbara Wilson in Houston, Texas, wrote on March 9, "It must be spring today! The 13 purple martins at my house, spent most of the day singing and preening instead of out flying and bug catching. Their wonderful 'cher' and gurgling sounds fill the air with music." Listen to this exuberant sound of spring recorded by Lang Elliott:
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Canada Geese
in flight and Sandhill Cranes dancing. Photos by Stephen J. Lang
for The Wisconsin Society
for Ornithology |
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On March 9, Julie Milham in Jasper, Georgia, found "a very large flock of Canadian geese heading north in the afternoon. They were so noisy, and so high up in the sky we had a hard time spotting them. Approximately 100 - 150 birds. Beautiful!"
Sandhill Cranes have been gathering in huge numbers on the Platte River in Nebraska. People gather there to see them. The Rowe Sanctuary in Gibbon, Nebraska, is a great place to view cranes up close and personal as they awaken at first light and as they come down to the river for the night. Some cranes have left this Platte River "staging ground" now and are headed north. Several people in Wisconsin and Michigan have noticed Sandhill Crane in the past week.
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Crow with
deformed beak, and crow spitting out seeds it had stored in its
throat pouch to eat in a different place. Photos by Judy Rowe Taylor. |
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Judy Rowe Taylor of Mukilteo, Washington, found and photographed two very interesting crows in the past couple of weeks. One was spitting out peanuts and corn kernals that it had stored in its throat pouch. The other crow had a badly deformed beak. To see more photos and learn more about these, see:
We've
had SO many new signs of spring this week! Wooly bear caterpillars, bluebirds,
choruses of songbirds, crocuses and daffodils. Make sure you share YOUR
spring observations with us. Just click on the owl button on any Journey
North page.
Oriole
Food Chain: Discussion of Challenge Question #8
Last time we posed this problem: "Make a food chain that
includes an oriole. How many different food chains can your class come
up with? What is the longest oriole food chain you can think of? The shortest?
Remember: a food chain ALWAYS starts with the sun's energy going to a
plant." The shortest possible food chain with an oriole is from the
sun to any plant (an orange, raspberry, cherry, etc.) eaten by the oriole,
who is still alive at the end of the food chain. The longest we came up
with was the sun giving energy to an aspen tree, being eaten by a forest
tent caterpillar who gets eaten by a cuckoo who gets eaten by a hawk who
gets killed at a picture window. One of the maggots that eats the hawk
gets eaten by a spider which is picked up and eaten by the oriole who
gets killed by a little falcon who gets killed on its roost at night by
a great horned owl who gets killed by a lynx who dies and gets eaten by
maggots who get eaten by kingbirds... This could go on forever, couldn't
it?)
Where Energy Comes From: Discussion of Challenge Question #9
Last time we asked, "How do plants get energy from the sun? Why don't food chains ever start with an animal getting energy from the sun?" Plants don't eat, though they often get minerals or other essential chemicals from the soil, the air, or occasionally by engulfing small animals. (The venus flytrap does this, for example.) But plants make the sugars they need using just carbon dioxide (from the air around them) and water in a special process called photosynthesis that requires light from the sun and special green pigments called chlorophyll. Animals cannot make their own sugar or other carbohydrates, so animals MUST eat in order to get food. Some animals eat animals, some eat plants, but if you go back to the original source of energy, all food chains must start with the sun's light giving energy to plants for photosynthesis to make sugar.
How to Respond to Today's Challenge Questions:
IMPORTANT: Answer only ONE question in each e-mail message.
1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-loon@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge
Question #10 (OR #11 OR #12)
3. In the body of EACH message, give your answer to ONE of the questions
above.
The Next Signs of Spring Update Will Be Posted on March
21, 2003
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North. All Rights Reserved.
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