The Newest Arrivals
I’ve said it before but these loons are still driving me crazy! We figured with the early ice out that we would have an early “chicks in,” but such was not the case! Long Pond can lay claim to this year’s first chick, but that’s it so far for Long Pond. The season’s first Great Pond hatch was a “double,” and with another single hatch, Great Pond now has three chicks for a grand total of four between the two ponds.
So, along with this great news, we also had our first of many abandoned eggs on Long Pond’s Blueberry Island. Our pair nested with just the one egg but abandoned it two weeks later. Why? Our best guess is a result of territorial pressure from an intruder wanting to take over this prime loon real estate. This egg, like all abandoned eggs, will end up going down to Biodiversity Research Institute in Portland for heavy metals, etc., testing this fall. Until then, it goes into Sue’s freezer!
Those of you that frequent the Great Pond Marina and Sadie’s Restaurant are, of course, used to seeing loons in the marina area and those with keen eyesight have even observed a loon nesting in the adjacent wetlands. But seeing multiple loons in that territory is actually a problem in the making. With an average five adult loons in that cove this year, the mating pair has been distracted to say the least and has yet to nest. There’s still time, but the clock is running out! Our two Colby interns along with our other valued volunteers visit that territory, as they do the other 26 or so loon territories on Great and Long Ponds, every two or three days, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for things to settle down and let the banded pair get back to business.
As of this writing, Great and Long Ponds each have seven nests in progress, which isn’t bad but it’s not great either. That’s only fourteen nests out of a potential 26. Of course, we are shooting for the moon and would love to see 26 nests but of course, that’s not reality. We only had nine chicks between the two lakes last year with only one, or possibly two, making it to the great fly-off in late October and November.
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”! 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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