Crazy As A Loon

Morris Plains has been hosting a celebrity for at least seven days - a Pacific loon.

As you might expect, this bird should not be on this side of the continental divide, much less so far inland.

And yet, here it is, swimming happily in the large pond at the American Road office park just barely within the friendly confines of Morris Plains.

Jonathan Klizas first announced the bird's appearance on his website devoted to Morris and Somerset county birds, Mocosoco Birds. The news later hit the New Jersey bird list I read, which is run by the American Birding Association.

It was found March 9 by Jamie Glydon. When Klizas went to investigate and photograph to post it on his site the next day he thought it was a red-throated loon, which is more common to see in this area, although perhaps not as common as a common loon.

Common loons are big birds, with stout bills. Red-throated loons are smaller, with a thin, up-tilted bill. All loons are found on ponds and lakes except in winter, when they can also be found on ocean coasts, in such places as Barnegat Lighthouse down the Shore.

In breeding season loons would be easily told apart by coloring, but in winter both tend to stick to black and white and gray. 

So when he saw what was obviously a smaller loon with a slimmer bill he presumed it was a red-throated loon. He posted his pictures and the birding community weighed in.

Look at the colors! Look at that bill! It falls between the red-throat and the common. 

Must be a Pacific loon!

Let the birding caravans begin.

I talked to several birders who came from elsewhere in Morris County and one from Gloucester County when my husband and I saw the loon this week. I heard there would be other birders coming from much farther afield. Birders do this all the time. This weekend there will be many more of them and they'll have to be careful to keep out of the way of those going to work or to the homes farther up American Road.

According to the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology website, the nonbreeding Pacific loon has dark gray upperparts and white throat, chest, and belly. It has a long body and a relatively thin bill. If you look at the site you'll see a picture of its breeding colors, and like all loons it is very pretty. 

How did it get to Morris Plains? With our wacky weather this year, particularly the strong winds, it was likely blown off course. And like any stranger in an unfamiliar area, it went for a little bit of home - not caring that it was in the middle of an office park.

Meanwhile, back at this office park, the celebrity has been drawing a lot of birders. Many I saw came with scopes and binoculars and cameras, from small point-and-shoots to large-lensed beasts.

MH and I were there, too - how could we not when a special bird was being seen practically in our backyard! It was a matter of pride. We saw the loon swim and dive, and got some semi-decent photographs.

Why semi-decent? Because this loon was sticking to the middle and back of the large pond, which in decades past was the town ash pit, Morris Plains historian Dan Myers once told my husband. That was when Myers was a child, before the woods were cut down and the office park was built. The pit became a pond.

(And to show that what's old is new again, there is now another development under construction across from the office parks - several townhouses caled Waterview because it has a "view" of another pond that I suspect was created as part of the approval. It is a much smaller development than what is planned for the old Pfizer buildings on Route 53.)

The birders weren't that interested in the ringnecked ducks, Canada geese and hooded and redbreasted mergansers on the lake. Neither was the loon. It was also oblivious to the turkey vultures and redtailed hawk flying overhead. (The pond must be stocked with fish to not only draw a loon and these diving ducks but to keep the loon here for so long.)

The loon's presence reminds us that man and animal are living in ever-closer proximity. We tear down woods and build houses, and then we wonder why the deer are eating our shrubs and flowers. We create koi ponds and then have to cover them with netting to keep out the herons. The occasional coyote passes through the yard and turkey vultures increase in number as they feast on plentiful roadkill.

This loon is gracing a lake created to make an otherwise sterile office park pretty. Is it crazy? I don't think so.