CROW WING COUNTY, MINN.
If we had been on a mosquito hunt, motoring across a darkened lake in north-central Minnesota, rather than a search for loons, our success would have been guaranteed.
This was about 10:30 Tuesday night, and Steve Houdek, a biological technician with the U.S. Geological Survey in La Crosse, Wis., was piloting a 16-foot aluminum boat, while two of his colleagues, biological technician Luke Fara and research wildlife biologist Kevin Kenow, crowded in the boat's bow, with Kenow pointing a high-powered spotlight into the black night.
So far the beacon had illuminated only countless flying bugs, including the biting kind.
Also in the boat were Department of Natural Resources non-game wildlife program supervisor Carrol Henderson, and me.
The goal: To capture a nesting pair of adult loons and their lone chick, and bring them to shore, where blood and feather samples would be drawn, and special "geolocators'' attached to a leg of each adult would be removed, so migration, diet and other information the gadgets had recorded could be downloaded.
Apprehending at least half of the 42 northern Minnesota loons fitted with the recording devices last year is an important part of a study to determine whether loons that nest in Minnesota but winter along the coast of Louisiana and other Southern states were harmed by the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
Impressively, the tiny electronic devices will give researchers a treasure trove of information, while the blood and feather samples will indicate the presence of contaminants, if any.