Subject: Red-throated Loon at Green Lake, Seattle
Date: Feb 29 13:18:56 2000
From: Martin J. Muller - MartinMuller at email.msn.com


Fellow bird enthusiasts,

After the rain stopped and the sun came out this morning I couldn't resist
the temptation of taking a quick break from
homework/studying/administration. Took a stroll down to get a coffee and
then walked back along the southeastern side of Green Lake (Seattle).
Unplanned, unprepared, no binoculars....

Just before getting to the bay near the play field (Community Center / Evans
Pool) my eye was caught by a large water bird with gray back and gray hind
neck diving away from me, close to shore. Wide body, no "jump" before the
dive and the fact that the primaries were the last part to disappear below
the surface told me it wasn't a grebe. The whole jizz was wrong. So I
stopped and waited for the bird to reappear. It took FOREVER....much too
long for a grebe. Loon....it's got to be a loon my brain was going. Yeah,
but pretty small for a loon. I've seen Common Loon (Gavia immer) on Green
Lake, this was smaller. Huh, sure, try and make it into something
special...... Amazing, the conversations that go on inside my brain.
Okay, so what are the possibilities? Oh, here's the bird, 100 meters out.
Wow, look at the amount of white on the neck, at least half if not 3/4. Nice
clear border too. It's holding its head tilted up..... That's right, when
the bird dove away I didn't see the "indentation," the white from the
foreneck wrapping partly around the side indenting the dark hindneck. So it
can't be a small Common. Nah, I gotta be imagining this.
I went home and grabbed my stuff. Binoculars, scope, camera. Common Loons
are regular spring and fall visitors on the lake. Anything else would be new
to my Green Lake list.
Back by 10:15. No sign of the bird. 10:25 finally spot a loon resting well
offshore, still in the same general area as before.
I waited patiently for an hour before the bird started foraging dives again,
one of which carried it within 30 meters of me. Good shots.
During that hour I made the following observations:
1) Loon with gray crown, nape, hind neck, all pretty much the same shade of
gray. Very clear border between dark and light on neck, 3/4 of neck showing
white, a slightly lighter area around the ear. Small amount of white spots
on scapulars ("back"). Small amount of white from flanks showing above the
water line. Slightly upturned gray bill (but see below), head held tilted
up. This bird has a damaged lower mandible, resulting in an exaggerated
upturned quality, since the tip of the lower mandible was missing. So far
everything points to adult in winter plumage Red-throated Loon (G.
stellata). The only field mark that didn't compute was the gray "cap" on the
head extending below the eye. I shrug this off as individual variation, just
like the one dark spot in the white on the lower right hand side of the
neck, or perhaps onset of molt into breeding plumage.
2) Bird preens normally with the injured bill. Preens belly by turning the
body sideways, rolling over, submerging opposite side (closed) wing,
"waving" the exposed foot. Stretches wing and foot very low parallel to the
water surface while "leaning" the head and neck in the opposite direction.
Scratches the head with foot over closed wing. Rubs head over oil gland and
uses sides of head to rub oil on back feathers (scapulars). Didn't see the
bird squeeze the oil gland between its mandibles. During rest one foot was
pulled from the water, shaken, the folded wing briefly lifted and the foot
tucked beneath it, resting above the flank, much the same way as in grebes.

This past Saturday, during a field trip, I got to enjoy the spectacle of
over 1000 Red-throated Loons foraging in the swift currents at Deception
Pass (north end Whidbey Island), floating out on the current, then flying
back upstream to repeat the process. Pretty amazing sight. However the birds
stayed well offshore. Today's lengthy scrutiny, plus close-up study of
plumage (and photographs) make me feel that now I've really seen the bird.

Pretty neat way to add species number 161 to the Green Lake bird list.

Cheers,
Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com