How Personable These Birds Are
Over the last month, the loons on the Belgrades have nearly finished their courting period ,and we are even witnessing some of our first chick’s hatch! My name is Barlow Herbst, and I am a rising sophomore from Colby College, working as a summer intern for the Belgrade Lakes Association’s loon monitoring project. Together with Jodie Tsih, a fellow Colby student, we’ve been wrangling and untangling the many mysteries held by the loons on both Long and Great Pond.
At Colby I am majoring in Environmental Science focusing on conservation and field biology. I’m captivated by birds of all shapes and sizes, with my primary attention to songbirds and owls — nothing on the water. I learned about this project from Colby’s Buck Lab, and it stuck out as a way to finally experience the world of field biology while continuing expanding my knowledge of birds. In a sense, it was also my bridge to finally explore the world of waterfowl and these unreal creatures known as loons.
I had little to no knowledge about loons when entering this project, but I always admired their beautiful iridescence and the adults’ signature blood-red eyes. I was excited to work so closely alongside these birds and figure out how they reveal the true condition of the lakes they reside on. Nothing could have prepared me for just how personable these birds are! Each one has its own personality and social life, and they don’t just fly away like other birds. It was also really surprising how they aren’t treated as just statistics, but instead we observe their behavior and positions and then later work out the nuances and reasoning to track possible nesting pairs. Even when we think everything is under control, they like to deviate and seem to turn everything we thought upside down!
I had little to no knowledge about loons when entering this project, but I always admired their beautiful iridescence and the adults’ signature blood-red eyes. I was excited to work so closely alongside these birds and figure out how they reveal the true condition of the lakes they reside on. Nothing could have prepared me with just how personable these birds are! Each one has its own personality and social life, and they don’t just fly away like other birds. It was also really surprising how they aren’t treated as just statistics, but instead we observe their behavior and positions and then later work out the nuances and reasoning to track possible nesting pairs. Even when we think everything is under control, they like to deviate and seem to turn everything we thought upside down!
Over the course of my time here, I’ve learned how to approach and observe these birds safely, decipher what a majority of their behaviors mean, and what distinguishes individual loons from pairs or intruders. Additionally, I’ve become more familiar with the situations on both Great and Long Ponds, and hopefully, my assistance with this research can uncover the reasoning behind the relatively low productivity rates and pair retention on these lakes.
Over the past week, three chicks have hatched: two chicks on Great Pond near Robbins Mill Stream and one chick in the cove just north of the entrance to Ingham Stream. Overall we have a majority (12/14) of our territories on Great Pond housing nesting loons, but unfortunately, only territory on Long Pond has a nesting bird. Hopefully more will be nested and more chicks will hatch and survive in the coming weeks.
Thank you Barlow! 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
Dick Greenan is chairman of the Belgrade Lakes Association’s Loon Preservation Project.
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