LOCALadk Magazine

By 11-12 weeks of age, the chicks are fully feathered, and able to fly and fend for themselves. However, they greatly prefer to have their parents feed them, so they will bombard the parent around the neck and bill try- ing to get them to dive down for yet another fish. I'm pretty sure the adults gather up in social groups and migrate before the juveniles, just so they can get away from those pesky teenagers! Adult Adirondack loons molt into their gray winter plumage in the fall, and usually migrate to the coast from late October through November. Our migration studies have shown that they make a beeline to the east coast, flying nonstop for 8 or more hours straight, and winter from Cape Cod down to North Carolina. Juvenile loons tend to hang out on their natal lake as long as they can, until the lake starts to freeze up and they figure out they need to fly away. They may do a tour of New York lakes until they find their way to the coast. During late January-February, loons completely molt out their flight feathers, and so are flightless for a month or more until the new feathers grow back in. At this time, they also regrow their striking black and white breeding plumage, thus returning to the Adiron- dacks in vibrant colors. In recent years, we've documented a climate change-related phenomenon we've termed "molt-mi- gration mismatch," in which larger Adirondack lakes are no longer freezing up until late winter, and the loons have not yet migrated because the water has stayed open. By the time the lakes do freeze solid, the loons have molted their flight feathers and are unable to fly off, so they become "iced-in". It has been extremely interesting to see how global phenomena such as climate change can impact individ-

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