04/19/2026
COMMON LOONS BELATEDLY RETURN TO SENEY
Due to this spring’s late thaw, many Refuge loons, having migrated north from oceanic wintering grounds at the beginning of April, have spent the past two weeks idling on Lake Michigan while making daily flights to Seney in overhead search for safe landing zones; it was only this Monday that tongues of open water on several pools began swelling to loon-accommodating dimensions. Among those who dropped into these areas were the D Pool female, Vert, who was first color-marked as a successful mother on adjacent G in 2011, and Sekhen, who was hatched on T2 West in 2009, and who has spent most of his adult Refuge tenure as an unpaired “floater” without a breeding home. Because the recent territories of the world’s oldest documented Common Loons, ABJ and Fe, remained largely frozen this week, it is not particularly concerning that neither has yet to be spotted as a returnee; with ice now in rapid retreat, their H and I Pool domains should be navigable within a day or two.
Thanks to Jen Wycoff and Dani Fegan for their observations.
Damon McCormick
Common Coast Research & Conservation
PHOTO: On April 14, a newly returned male loon flaps his wings on a melted portion of E Pool. Photo by Dani Fegan.
