Hi Vincent,

Red-throated Loons are regular-to-common late fall and winter visitors to fresh water lakes in many parts of the US outside of the Northwest. In 2011 and again this year a Red-throated Loon showed up on Coeur D'Alene Lake, Idaho. You can see the checklist and photos here for this year's sighting at:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15505359

The eBird map too shows hundreds of tags around the Great Lakes as well as interior (presumably deeper) lakes throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (see link below):

http://ebird.org/ebird/map/retloo?neg=true&env.minX=&env.minY=&env.maxX=&env.maxY=&zh=false&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=all&byr=1900&eyr=2013

Good birding,
Jon Isacoff, Spokane

Jonathan B. Isacoff
Chair, Environmental Studies
Associate Professor, Political Science
Gonzaga University, Box 52
Spokane, WA 99258-0052
isacoff at gonzaga.edu