Tag: diving

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Cottage Life

Cottage-country scuba diver to the rescue!

Photo courtesy Jack Milne

What cottager hasn’t accidentally dropped something into the lake? If you’re lucky enough to cottage in the Kawarthas, no worries: Jack Milne is on the case. The local scuba diver has been cleaning up the water—and retrieving lost items—for the last two years. Because it’s fun. “I go out every chance I get,” he says. “It’s great to swim around and see what I can haul out in a single day.”

Jack first tried scuba diving during a trip to Thailand in 2017. “I was immediately hooked.” So the Cameron, Ont., resident took up the hobby in cottage country. He dives near swimming areas, cliff-jumping spots, and public boat docks. And he finds “a crazy array of items,” he says. Some of it is garbage. Some of it is valuable. And some of it is…confusing. “Once, I found a perfectly intact toilet.”

Jack retrieves items for both locals and cottagers. “This past summer, a lady contacted me; she’d lost her phone. It had all her family photos on it,” he says. “I geared up and went to help her right away.” He found the phone in the Fenelon Canal and—it’s a miracle!—it was still working. “All her photos were recovered.”

Jack, who earlier this year began training to be a diver for the Navy, enjoys the praise that he gets for all of his underwater volunteering. But mostly? “I hate seeing trash in the water, and I feel responsible to clean it up,” he says. “Very few people actually have that ability.”

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the double-crested cormorant

By Elliotte Rusty Harold/Shutterstock

The double-crested cormorant gets a bad rap. But give this big, prehistoric-looking bird some props: the species’ numbers have exploded since the 1970s, after they suffered at the hands of DDT. Just like eagles, cormorants would eat fish contaminated by the pesticide (and produced eggs with too-thin shells as a result). In 1950, there were only 900 breeding pairs in the Great Lakes. By 2000, that number had jumped to 115,000.

What do cormorants eat?

Some anglers aren’t huge fans of this bird, which, fair enough: it does spend much of its time catching fish. Flocks of cormorants will fly dozens of kilometres from their home base to forage. They soar in tight formations then dive below the surface of the water to catch more than 250 species of fish, including small fare such as minnows and yellow perch, plus invasive species including round goby and rainbow smelt. For the record, anglers, most research shows that sport fish only make up a small percentage of a cormorant’s diet.

Cormorants are excellent swimmers—at least, they are when they’re going after food. This bird has a cool fishing technique: it chases after fish underwater, propelling itself with its webbed feet. (Other bird species that swim underwater, like the Cassin’s auklet, use their wings like fins to “fly” as they pursue prey.) Cormorants have hook-tipped beaks for a reason. They use the hook to snag their dinner. Sometimes they catch crayfish. When they do, they repeatedly bash the crustacean against the surface of the lake until its legs fall off, then flip it into the air to catch and swallow it head-first. Show off.

Why do cormorants ‘pose’?

When a cormorant isn’t fishing, it’s just hanging out. This bird spends at least half of its day resting (hey, sounds like a cottager!). Ever spot one standing on a bare, windy rock or branch—or on your dock—with its wings outstretched? It’s trying to dry out. Cormorants have less preen oil (the stuff that helps ducks shed water) than other birds, so their feathers are soaked after a morning of fishing. Experts believe this difference is what actually helps cormorants hunt underwater more effectively.

 

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Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the red-throated loon

By Wolfgang Kruck/Shutterstock

If you’re asking, “What the heck is a red-throated loon?” you’re probably not alone. This smaller, paler diving bird is a cousin of the Canadian-famous common loon. But the red-throated loon is far less known, and definitely less photographed. One reason? Red-throats breed in the north. The only time a cottager is likely to spot one is when the birds journey south in the fall, stopping along the way at large water bodies including the Great Lakes.

Like other loons, the red-throated loon is a strong swimmer but terrible at walking on land. This is because its legs are positioned far back on its body. No matter—fish-eating loons were designed to dive for their dinner. Or, in the red-throat’s case fly, then dive. They often locate prey while flying—sometimes in flocks. Then, they drop rapidly into the water when they spot a school of fish. Red-throated loons have thin, dagger-like bills (all the better for spearing a meal).

Red-throated loons are more masterful fliers than their common cousins. At least, they’re better at getting airborne. Other loons need a long runway of water to “patter” along before they can take off; red-throats can spring into the sky. This means that they can use small tundra and taiga lakes, or even ponds, for nesting.

Just like the common loon, a red-throated loon loses its red eyes and breeding colours—a rust-coloured neck patch—in the winter. Their generic greyness makes nonbreeding common loons and nonbreeding red-throated loons tricky to tell apart during the cold season. Look closely: a common loon still has a mostly-dark face and neck, with only a blaze of white down the front. A red-throat has more white on its face and neck, with a more black-and-white speckled back. The latter is smaller, with a sinewy neck, a slighter build, and pointier wings.

Cottage Q&A: Why are these loons gathering in groups?