Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Common Loon (Gavia immer)

Common Loon [lateral view of adult in alternate plumage]. Photograph Credit: David L. Roemer; Barren River Reservoir, Barren/Allen County, Kentucky; 4 April 2010.

Abundance: Uncommon during late fall, winter, and spring, sometimes becoming Fairly Common or even Common for short periods during late fall; Very Uncommon during summer; recorded in 24 Regional counties (unrecorded in Fentress and Macon counties, Tennessee) (Map of UCR Distribution); data from the Regional bird-monitoring efforts are too few to determine a trend in the population wintering in or summering in the Region (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).

Status: Winter Resident; Visitor during summer irregularly; photograph (see above).

Regional High Count: 1342 (7 November 2003; Barren County, Kentucky; David L. Roemer; probably the all-time record high count for Kentucky as well as the Region); CBC/CBB High Count: 88 (18 December 2001; Clay County, Tennessee [CBC]; m. ob.).

Regional Extreme Dates:

    Note: the irregular presence of summering individuals—presumed to be non-breeding, second-year birds in most cases—makes determination of extreme dates inadvisable.  Following the arrival of small numbers of migrants, some still in alternate plumage, during late August and September, the main body of fall migrants arrives during late October and throughout November, with some large to very large numbers usually occurring on a few days when optimal weather conditions (i.e., a frontal passage with rainfall) occur during this period; most migrants continue south, but small to moderate numbers of wintering individuals remain, almost entirely restricted to the big lakes of the Region; spring migration is somewhat more drawn out and considerably smaller in magnitude than the fall migration, with small to moderate numbers of migrants appearing from late March through mid- to late May.

Habitat: Open water of all types and sizes, including lakes and ponds of 20 hectares [50 acres] or more in extent, as well as wide, slow-moving rivers, such as the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: Unregistered during 2003, but registered on 1 (of 206 possible) monthly check-list during 2004, leading to a YardWatch frequency classification of Rare, a not unexpected result of this project, which included few yards or neighborhoods with suitable habitat for loons.

Foray Results: A summary of data for late spring migrants from UCR Forays follows (to view a map displaying foray data for a county or a sub-Region for this species, click on the name of an underlined county or state below):

* Because some foray blocks fall into two or three counties, the total of blocks in the Kentucky or Tennessee portions of the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the counties of each portion of the Region; similarly, because some blocks fall into both states, the total of blocks for the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the two states.

Remarks: Records of this loon are distributed very unevenly across the Region, with counties having a portion of one of the big lakes within their boundaries likely to possess dozens of records and counties without such habitat likely to possess only a few records or even just one record.  For instance, McCreary County, Kentucky, has but a single record—a basic-plumaged individual observed on a quiet stretch of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River during late May or early June of 1994 (Stedman and Stedman 2002).  Morgan County, Tennessee, likewise possesses but one record—a road-killed individual found 15 May 2004 by Samuel D. Perry [fide Lynda M. Mills].

    Of considerable interest was the report of a loon outfitted with a satellite transmitter on its breeding grounds and tracked during its southward migration. It was outfitted 20 July 2010 in the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage in the western end of the Upper Peninsula, Michigan, where it remained until 20 November 2010; it was then tracked in migration first to the southern end of Lake Michigan (21 November 2010), then to Barren River Reservoir, Barren/Allen counties, Kentucky (24 November); then to Tim's Ford Lake, Tennessee (25 November 2010); then to  Guntersville Lake, Alabama (26 November 2010); and then to the Gulf of Mexico offshore from Franklin County, Florida (28 November 2010); it was then tracked in the Gulf of Mexico through the winter of 2010–2011 and then on its northward migration during spring 2011).  Details at this website (click on link to map for 2010–2011 and then click on the link for loon # 55479): http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/migrations.html. [Thanks to DLR for reporting this site, which was drawn to his attention by Lester Doyle.]

Check-lists of Birds for the Counties of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of each county of the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed by clicking on the links below. For each county, there are two check-lists: one list that shows the species that have been observed and where possible documented in the county within the larger list for the entire Region; and one list that includes only the species observed in the county with annotations for the date and observers for at least one sighting (the ultimate goal of the latter list will be to include annotations for the very first known Regional observation of each species in that county; this goal is probably one that will take many years to complete, if completion is even a possibility). To see if the species discussed in this species account has been observed in a county, click below or click on the link for the Map of UCR Distribution near the top of the page.

Check-lists of Birds for Some Public Access Birding Sites of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of some public access birding sites within the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed via the links below. To see if the species dealt with in this species account has been observed within any of these sites, click on the appropriate link below. See the pages for each county within the Gazetteer for links to additional smaller public access birding sites with check-lists in progress.

Literature Cited