The Loons Return
Welcome back to another summertime in the Belgrades and the fourth year of our “Call of the Loon!” Like last year, we will be interspersing this column with weekly photo galleries of our iconic bird in action which we hope you will enjoy as much as we have bringing them to you.
As you may or not know, our local Belgrade Lakes Association is into their sixth year of their Loon Preservation Project to develop a responsible comprehensive plan in order to support our loon population in the very best sustainable manner.
Although our surveys began in earnest May 20 on Great Pond and May 21 on Long Pond, we did confirm four active nests on May 11, so with an estimated 27-28 day gestation period, we should be looking at our first chicks of the season between June 8 — 14. With an early ice out (March 22), we would expect to have some early nesters and we did. Typically, our loons nest around Memorial Day with our first chicks hatching as early as Father’s Day (June 16 this year) until around the 4th of July. But, with any luck, we should have two chicks on Long and Great Ponds the week before! Break out the cigars!
Thanks to our loon consultant and mentor, Lee Attix, and Colby College’s Professor of Biology and Program leader, Catherine Bevier, BLA’s Loon Project will once again have assistance from two new outstanding Colby College interns this summer. Barlow Herbst and Jodie Tsih will provide some young eyes along with their tremendous cumulative experience! Our valued loon volunteers will continue with their eyes on the lakes but will now be assisted by two very capable and dedicated students to assist all of us with the daily observations. Equally important will be their expertise in the sciences and record keeping those statistics to better assess our efforts and future activities.
Barlow will be a sophomore with a focus in Ornithology, Biodiversity and Conservation. Jodie will be a senior in September with a major in Biology with a concentration in Ecology and Evolution, and has most recently just completed a semester at Round River Conservation in Botswana. Both of our new interns come with a great deal of experience; including experience researching animal behavior with a focus on how environment impacts the red-necked wallaby’s social behavior at the FOTA Wildlife Park, assisting with bird banding during spring, summer, and fall migratory seasons including extracting birds from the mist nets, identifying, and aiding with banding birds at the Willistown Trust Bird Conservation Program, Newtown Square, PA., etc.
Please join us in welcoming Barlow and Jodie! We are very fortunate to have these two individuals on the Team! Their classroom training began on May 28, followed by their field work with our loons on both Great and Long Ponds.
Amongst the many objectives this summer, right up there on top is why our twenty two loon territories on both Great and Long Ponds only produced nine chicks last year and only two made it to the great fly-off in October. We have a more than adequate adult loon population, but we just do not have the necessary chick production and longevity. More on this subject as the summer progresses. Stay tuned!
If you have a particular questions regarding our Belgrade loon population, please email your inquiry to info@blamaine.org, and we will try to answer your question either in this column or via email. Have a great spring and summer enjoying the “Call of the Loon”!
Dick Greenan is chairman of the Belgrade Lakes Association’s Loon Preservation Project.
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