While many friends have been reporting that they have loons by their lake on the Cisco Chain, I have not seen or heard a loon on Mamie Lake so far. Some have told me there are loons on the most southern end of the chain and even pointed out loons to me. My response was those are not loons; they are BUFFLEHEAD DUCKS.

I understand why people would believe these ducks are actually loons for these four reasons. One, from a distance due to their coloring, the male and females do resemble loons. Second, the male and female buffleheads tend to stay together as do loons. Third, they dive under water to find food (pictured) like loons do. Fourth, these Bufflehead ducks are rarely seen on our lakes.

As far as Buffleheads resembling loons, with a closer view the males have a green & purple head and white plumage behind their ears, but females are mostly brown with white feathers on the side of her head. The large number of bufflehead ducks seen on Mamie Lake the last two weeks is definitely a rare sighting.

In the last 30 years, I’ve only seen a few bufflehead ducks and others agree that seeing this many is exceptionally uncommon. I really do not know much about this duck except they winter in north and central America. So, it’s possible our Northwoods is just a stopping point as they migrate back to their breeding territory in Canada and Alaska. Now we all know these unusual ducks are not loons.

I have to add, knowing loons return to the same breeding territory (lake) each year and there have been so many sightings on other lakes on the Cisco Chain, I cannot understand why we haven’t seen the nesting pair of loons on Mamie Lake yet.  Updating, just today I saw my first loon on Mamie Lake.