Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Breeding Range. (Fig. 4). Fairly common in the Turtle Mountains. Young birds also were recorded on Devils Lake on June 9, 1895, by Edwin S. Bryant (Bishop 1921), and adults with a probable nest were seen on July 28, 1912 on Lake Elsie in Richland County (Bailey 1916a). In addition, adults have been recorded during the breeding season at Stump Lake in Nelson County on July 19, 1905 (Wood 1923) and on Spiritwood Lake in Stutsman County on June 18, 1961 (RES).
Breeding Habitat. In the Turtle Mountains, this species is restricted largely to permanent, freshwater lakes, particularly those that contain large populations of fish. All of these lakes are bordered by extensive stands of woodland, chiefly quaking aspen, and most of them contain peripheral emergent zones of deep-marsh vegetation including hardstem bulrush, softstem bulrush, and cattails. Some of the better known Turtle Mountain lakes that are inhabited by breeding Common Loons include Carpenter, Crowell, Dion, Fish, Gordon, Gravel, Jarvis, Long, Lyde, Rose, and Upsilon Lakes, all in Rolette County; and Boundary, Brager, Metigoshe, and Sand Lakes in Bottineau County.
Nesting. Breeding season: Early May to late July. Egg records (4 nests): June 15, 1898-nest with one egg nearly ready to hatch in Rolette County (Job 1902); June 15, 1902--nest with two eggs in Rolette County (Bishop 1921); mid-June, 1900--two nests, each with two eggs in Rolette County (Bishop egg collection catalog, Peabody Museum). Records of young birds (9 broods): young only a few days old seen on Devils Lake on June 9, 1895 (E. S. Bryant); downy young observed in Turtle Mountains of Rolette County on July 13, 1905 (Bishop 1921); two downy young observed in Turtle Mountains of Rolette County during mid-June 1912 and another brood of two downy young near Gravel Lake in Rolette County on June 21, 1912 (V. Bailey); on July 8, 1917, three broods, each containing two young birds, accompanied by adults, were recorded in Rolette County on Crowell, Long, and Jarvis Lakes (H. C. Oberholser); during 1967-1969, a nest with young was recorded in the Turtle Mountains of Bottineau County and young were seen in Rolette County (C. Cink).
Job (1902) describes the nest that he found on June 15, 1898 as a "flattened out" platform that was situated on the edge of a muskrat house near the margin of a band of reeds (probably bulrush) over water 3 or 4 feet deep.
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| Figure 4. Breeding Range of Common Loon. |
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/bbofnd/species/70.htm
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Menlo Park, CA [caww54]
