Subject: Re: Weird Pacific Loon
Date: Dec 19 10:16:03 1994
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


>Hi there, I already sent this mail last sunday, but no one answered !
>
>
>Last weekend (Dec 10th), I saw a weird Pacific Loon in Britannia Beach,
>Howe Sound, 40 km north of Vancouver, just ahead of the car park in front of
>the Mining Museum.
>
>The first weird thing about it is that it seems to be still moulting.
>
>The back was already moulted, speckled with lighter zones.
>Though the light was not very good, I was able to see:
> - the white breast,
> - the dark throat (I was unable to see an iridescence there),
> - the vertical stripes on the sides of the neck (covering a large part of
> the neck, unlike other species of loons).
>Unfortunately, I can't remember the colour of the bill.
>
>These characteristics are, I think, enough to tell this bird as a Pacific Loon
>(Gavia pacifica).
>
>I didn't mention all the characteristics of the bird, though, for there is
>still a lot of fun to come :-)
>
> - the "cheeks" were grayish, rather than almost black in the breeding plumage.
> - the crown and the back of the neck were PALE YELLOW on almost half the part
> that is normally gray in the breeding plumage ! (or may be it was dirt
> white ?). I shall precise that the weather was overcast this day, so it
> cannot be an effect of the sun coming from behind the bird.
>
>
>So I have two questions:
> - is it normal to see a Pacific Loon with a breeding plumage on Dec 10th ?
>
> - Does this "decolouring" happen from time to time in the Pacific Loon ?
> If this is not the case, the more plausible exlpanation is that this bird
> has been marked by bleaching its neck feathers. Is anyone aware of such
> markings on some Pacific Loons populations ?
>
>Thanks
>
>--
>--------------------------------------------------
>A bird in the bush is better than two in the hand.
>
>Serge Le Huitouze School of Computing Science
>email: serge at cs.sfu.ca Simon Fraser University
>tel: (604) 291-5423 Burnaby, British Columbia
>fax: (604) 291-3045 V5A 1S6 Canada

Serge, I sent no reply because I don't know what to think of your bird!
Yellow is not a color I associate with loons (except for the bill of that
one species). Certainly it's unusual to see any loon in breeding plumage
on Dec. 10th, although Pacifics commonly retain this plumage into October.
Usually they've lost it by early or mid November. I have no idea why one
would look yellow, although when they come down here in fall, still in
breeding plumage, the gray of the head and neck has indeed faded to almost
white; very striking.

On a personal note, thanks for your comments about hunters in France.
However, I feel there are all too many segments of society that deserve the
term "groc" as much as they do.....

Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416