Migrating Common Loons

A project of Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes' Wildlife Management Program in conjunction with the partners and sponsors detailed below.

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Click on an animal's name for maps and more information.

Introduction

Each fall Common Loons stage on Flathead Lake before they finish migrating to the Pacific coastline. In October 2005, ARGOS transmitters were surgically implanted in four adults. These birds will be followed for the next two years to reveal their migration patterns, identify key staging and wintering locations.

Previous banding data has revealed that many Common Loons winter off the coast of central California. One individual Common Loon made the 950-mile spring migration in less than five days,

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/04/17/news/mtregional/news05.txt

This quick trip emphasizes the importance of identifying each stop or staging areas. This project will utilize duty cycled satellite transmitters. These duty cycles will gather location data more frequently during the spring and fall migration seasons. By using the duty cycles, battery life will be conserved to allow for capture of two fall and two spring migrations.

During the winter and summer months, while data collection will be less frequent, visual sighting is possible due to the color bands on each leg. Each bird has been given an unique combination of colors and patterns to allow for resighting and monitoring beyond the life of the transmitters. These color combinations are found in the caption of each map.

For more information about this project got to:

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/11/27/news/mtregional/news04.txt

Project Partners

Montana Common Loon Working Group, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Biodiversity Research Institute, Montana Loon Society

Project Sponsors

Funding for this project via Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' State Wildlife Grant program.