Linnaea Comes Home: A Rescued Loon Returns
The juvenile loon that would be called “Linnaea” when she was spotted entangled in fishing line in 2021.
Linnaea hatched in early June of 2021 in the lower half of Paradox Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Her loon parents fed and cared for her, and she was growing well. Then on July 29 a person from Texas who was vacationing on Paradox Lake called to report a loon chick entangled in fishing line. I went out in the rain and found Linnaea with multiple wraps of line around her head and attached to her leg.
On July 30 in the evening, Dr. Nina Schoch, and volunteers Cody Sears, Cal George and I went out in our boat to try to catch Linnaea to remove the monofilament line. We were successful in netting her, and Dr. Schoch removed the many wraps of line around her head and through her mouth and treated her wounds. Based on body measurements, it was determined that the loon was a female, and she was given colored leg bands so that she could be identified in the future. I named her Linnaea because of her fishing line entanglement.
I returned on August 4 and found the parents still feeding her. Linnaea looked healthy and was doing well. She stayed on the lake into late autumn, and then left for her migration to the ocean to spend the winter and the next few years while she matured into a breeding adult. If she survived, she would migrate back to Paradox Lake or another nearby lake in four or five years when she was mature. Only about half of loon juveniles that fledge make it back to their freshwater lakes as adults.
The rescue effort to remove the entangled fishing line from the juvenile loon in 2021.
Linnaea was spotted off the coast of Connecticut in February 2022. Photograph by Scott Whalen.
In February of 2022, we received some great news. Scott Whalen had photographed a juvenile loon on the ocean at Stonington, Connecticut, on February 12. The loon was banded, and the unique color combination of the bands told us that this was Linnaea. She had survived her first migration and was living successfully near the Stonington Fisherman’s Dock.
I always look for banded loons wherever I am paddling, because you never know where you might find one. There are no banded territorial loons on Paradox Lake, but a loon rescued in 2020 that had landed on a road had been banded and released on Paradox and had migrated, and of course there was Linnaea, who might someday return, too.
On July 4, 2024, I was paddling Paradox, watching and photographing some newly hatched loon chicks in the upper lake. When I canoed back to our shore, I spotted an adult loon nearby and I thought I saw a flash of red in the water near its legs. Could this loon be banded?
I followed the loon down to the inlet cove where it began fishing. The loon was a bit smaller than average, most likely a female. She was hard to follow because she was swimming long distances underwater, plus the wind had put a good chop on the waves, and there was some boat traffic producing wakes to make it even more challenging. After nearly an hour, she started to preen, and I got a good look at her left leg with its silver and green bands. But I only caught glimpses of her right leg bands and wasn’t sure if there was a red band or an orange band.
Ellie George captured a photo of Linnaea’s leg bands on Paradox Lake in July 2024.
Linnaea displays her leg bands in Paradox Lake in July 2024. Photo by Ellie George.
Then I got lucky. The loon started running across the surface to take flight, and I snapped multiple photos in hopes of seeing her bands since her legs were moving in and out of the water. When she reached enough speed, she lifted off the water and I captured an image of both legs. She flew a big circle over the upper lake and flew right over me, and I got another photo of her legs, since loons fly with their legs trailing out behind them. My photos showed that her right leg had an orange band with a black stripe over a red band. Now I could determine who this loon was!
Linnaea flying over Paradox Lake. Photo by Ellie George.
I raced home and looked through my records. She wasn’t the 2020 rescued loon that had landed on a nearby road. Could she be Linnaea? It was only three years ago since she had hatched, and often loons take four or five years to mature and return to the lakes where they were born. I pulled up my photos of Linnaea from 2021 and looked at the photos of her leg bands. They matched perfectly. Linnaea had come home to Paradox Lake.
This is the first time I have ever watched a loon as a tiny chick grow up to be a mature adult. I would like to thank everyone who helped Linnaea along the way, by reporting her entanglement, rescuing her, and sending sighting reports. Hopefully she will find a territory and a mate and raise chicks of her own in a year or two. If you ever have wondered if the small helpful actions that you do make a difference, just ask Linnaea.
E. George, ACLC Field Staff & Loon Naturalist