Hundreds of bird deaths sound alarm on problems in the Great Lakes
Volunteers and biologists walking the beaches of northwestern Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore the past few days have counted nearly 300 dead or dying loons and other fish-eating birds -- all victims of botulism that has scientists concerned about the changing ecology of the Great Lakes.
"This last couple days has been off the charts," said Dan Ray, a biologist in charge of a project monitoring the botulism among fish-eating birds at the park. "I'm sitting here looking at our graph and for the loons, this appears to be one of the worst seasons."
Strong southwest and northwest winds in recent weeks explain why the dead loons are coming ashore, possibly from many miles into Lake Michigan.
The death of loons -- with their haunting two-note cry and striking looks -- gets the public nervous, too, Ray said.
"It's almost strange from a biologist's standpoint," he said. "When loons show up (dead), people freak out."
On Tuesday, Ray walked 2 1/2 miles of shoreline near the mouth of the Platte River with Eleanor Comings, one of the volunteers, and found 88 dead birds, mostly loons. On Wednesday, Comings walked the same stretch and found 22 more loons.
After seeing today’s story in the Free Press and on freep.com, several people have reported more dead birds, including loons. Calls and emails came from as far south as Onekema and as far north as Charlevoix.
Bernie Misko, who has a home on Lake Michigan about three miles north of the Portage Lake channel, said he found five loons on Tuesday while walking along the beach.
“One of them had coyote tracks walking up to it and around it, but it didn’t bother" the carcass, Misko said.
The botulism issue, long a problem in southern U.S. reservoirs, first was a significant concern in Lake Michigan in 2006, Ray said, and was a problem again in 2007, but has been mostly in check the last few years. In 2011, only about 40 loons succumbed on the beaches of the national lakeshore, which Ray said seems to be like the end of a funnel where infected birds from northern Lake Michigan wash ashore.
Many of the birds are migratory, coming from Ontario, the Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin, as well as from northern Michigan, biologists said.
