From left to right: intern Barlow Herbst, project leader Lee Attix, and intern Jodie Tsih.
by Dick Greenan
This past week has been quite eventful for our loons, as well as Barlow and Jodie, our two Colby College interns, who participated in their first banding outing on Great Pond. With the typical threat of thunderstorms earlier that evening and winds in the 5-10 m.p.h. category, they had planned on capturing and banding four adults, but the weather and the birds did not want to cooperate. It took the team until 2:30 in the morning, but they did test, measure, and band three adults, all under the auspices of two of Biodiversity Research Institutes wildlife biologists.
Jodie is in seventh heaven, holding a Great Pond chick while its father is being “worked up”!
Tracking the movements, territory and mate fidelity, and long-term survival of banded loons is key to understanding the dynamics of our local population. First-year lab results of samples analyzed for mercury show only low and moderate levels in both blood and feathers. Fortunately, these results do not indicate any levels of concern at this time.
In the first two years, this project demonstrated the effectiveness of collaboration between trained professional researchers and our valued volunteer citizen scientists with local eyes on the water.
Well, as I am writing this week’s column, our two interns dropped by this morning to sadly say their goodbyes. We all so enjoyed their company and support this summer and are forever in their debt for their contributions to our loon preservation efforts. I would like to share Barlow’s bon voyage letter to Lee Attix and me, which beautifully sums up our collective sentiments:
Barlow is ready to release the banded and “processed” adult loon
I really enjoyed this experience. I’ve done a lot with all kinds of birds — the songbirds taught me a lot and brought me in. The owls were just unreal, but I think after this summer the loons are the winners, no question. I loved looking at and learning their behaviors while at the same time physically feeling like I was part of their world, just peering in. It is definitely very, very different seeing just one part of a bird’s life through bonding or even just birding then tracking and feeling like you’re living with a community of birds, especially the loons who seem to really have complex personalities.
I just wanted to say thank you for letting me participate in this project and experience just a small part of this world. Thank you for all of the support and guidance over these weeks. We really couldn’t have done it without you. I hope the season ends positively, fingers crossed, for the chicks and adults, and again, thank you. See you in the fall.
—Barlow Herbst
Thank you, Barlow and Jodie — we will miss you! If you have a particular question 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.
Dick Greenan is chairman of the Belgrade Lakes Association’s Loon Preservation Project.
