A Very Interesting Week
This has been a very interesting week with our loons, to say the least! As of this writing and to the best of our knowledge, our first loon chick of the year should be taking its first dip in lower Long Pond on or about June 13!
We have had numerous false starts, where weve observed our loons jumping onto their nests with all of the prerequisite cooing etc., but to no avail. We don’t really know what it takes nowadays to make it all happen but we are getting tired of watching and waiting without results!!! If what you think we are talking about, youre probably correct!
With that being said, we have seven nesting loon pairs on Great Pond and six on Long Pond as of this writing. With our early ice out by a month, we had expected an earlier than normal nesting calendar, but that did not happen. Regular readers of this column will recall that our chicks normally open their eyes to their new world on or around the Fourth of July, which hopefully will be the case again this summer.
We still have several territories on both Great and Long Ponds that have not nested and the banded pairs from last summer have not reconnected due to our Number One concern — intruding adult loons!! We have observed so many pairs that have actively been distracted and threatened by intruders. So, what is an intruder? It could be another adult loon, male or female, from another lake but most likely it is a returning adult that had previously nested in that territory or even a chick that, after three to four years on the ocean, is back for something less than a well-deserved homecoming!!
We are seeing more and more aggressive loon behavior with unfortunately, its cumulative effect on loon territorial fidelity. When you’re out on the lake and see what you think is a loon in distress, it is so often just a loon preening and/or bathing. But when you see three or more loons diving up and down in unison, you are seeing the aggressive Circle Dance, which usually ends up in no good!
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 Summer enjoying the Call of the Loon! Arent we are so fortunate to summer here in the Belgrades!
Dick Greenan is chairman of the Belgrade Lakes Association’s Loon Preservation Project.
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