Loony tunes!
 

Along with many other duties I maintain the loon sanctuary in Braun Bay. Lot's of fun! But some days are worse than others.

The loon pair nested later than usual this year and every morning I am out at the crack of dawn to check on "my" birds. Finally last week the nest was empty except for one egg. A sign that there was a hatching.

I scouted around and found the pair with a tinny tiny chick between them. As I glassed them with my binoculars something swooped down past me. I could not believe what I saw in my glasses. What I make out as a goshawk dove down between the adults, grabbed the chick and flew up into a tree on Glines island and munched it down! Yikes!

Man, I was low.

Now the good news. The next morning the loons were back on the nest and the following day the second egg hatched! We now have a growing chick on the bay.

So please, while you are enjoying Braun Bay keep an eye out for our little family and keep your distance.

Misty Blue

Misty, my 5-year-old asked how the loons around the lake were doing. If not too much trouble, could you let us know the state of the loon population?

Sent from my XT1528 using Tapatalk

As I have stated before we had the first chicks on the lake. They were born before July 4th in Green;s Basin. Thus far the two chicks are doing well.

Have to go to the clock...
 

there was a single chick hatched on July 4th in Robert's Cove as well..

Last week I noticed a pair of chicks hanging out between Harilla and the tip of Long Island. They weren't much larger than the size of your fist and seemed to be doing well.

We had two also hatch in Winter Harbor - later this year than usual, last week. I have not seen them for a few days but yesterday I saw them with only one. They usually have a nursery in front of our house but this year we haven't seen much of them. Their pattern is so different in so many ways this year, it make us wonder if they are different loons.

I was kayaking yesterday and took a long distance photo of a loon with my point and shoot. When I got home and downloaded, lo and behold, there were two tiny chicks behind the adult. I was blown away never having seen chicks.

This was also at the tip of Long Island.Attachment 10883

Quality is not great but still fun.

Are you certain it was a Gos? If so, I am jealous as they are my favorite of the raptors. I've never seen one in the wild - they're quite uncommon and people-shy. Could it instead have been a Cooper's or Sharp-Shinned??

Loon Patrol Boat
 

This brings back some memories...

Who remembers the red boat that had "LOON PATROL" written on the side of it? I belive it made port on Governor's Island maybe?

My Dad knew the man who owned it. His name was Dave Mettz. He was a customer of my Dad's. I think he was the same person who ran a radio/attenna shop over by the Laconia Airport.

We STILL have the VHF antenna he made for us on our boat!

I remember as a Kid, my Dad would ask me to call him on the VHF radio (does anyone still use those on the lake!). It never failed...after calling out "Daytripper calling Loon Patrol" moments later, the Marine Patrol would come on and ask us if we had a problem!

Good times

Thank you for all that you do.

I was going to ask the same question, I've seen a few in winter. That would be very rare this time of year. Not that it really maters what ate the little guy.

My wife and I spent a considerable amount of time photographing this pair, and the two new borns this past weekend.

I am very concerned because they seem to want to hang out around lighted 77 and well the boat traffic is getting awfully close to them....

The area around lighted 77 is an awfully busy thruway, hopefully they'll be ok. I wonder if they could post some signs around there. I noticed over at Ragged they have floating signs on the north & south ends. Curious, if this pair are the ones from the nest on Ragged.

My guess is that this is the pair from Ragged Island, although that is only a guess... if it is not that is actually good news, as there is yet another mating pair in the area. I contacted the Loon Preservation committee through there facebook page about extra signs in the area.... Time will tell if they will actually do something or not.

We have 2-4 out by us all the time.

While out for a swim on Saturday these three came through where I was. They kind of surprised me at first, I stayed pretty still in the water and they just chilled there for awhile. When they dove under I would go under and could see flashes of white...wish I had the GoPro with me...next time! But someone up at the house was able to get this shot of me swimming with the Loons...

http://www.walagata.com/w/zwrex/DSC00613.jpg

Always try to give them their space but they are certainly not skittish birds!

Not sure where their nest is in this area, would like to know so I could help watch over them :)

Loony reply
 

Thinkxngu: No sweat! Check out the Loon Preservation Committee. They have a website and are very helpful. We had a Forum Fest there a few years ago. As always, great people, great fun! As for the naturalists all I can say is that I have spent my life on the water and remembering some of the stunts that I have seen them do I know that God looks out for fishermen and crazy scientists.

Accipiter: I am guessing it was a Gos. I remember that last year he (she, it) spent some time perched on a tree at the Braun Bay sandbar. I looked at the Audubon book to try to figure it out but I am a sailor, not a bird guy.

Misty Blue.

Spent a lot of time searching for loons and taking pictures this weekend. The "family" off long Island by lighted 77 was found and doing fine. We watched while they seemed to be teach the young ones to dive, and fish... We unsuccessfully searched in Braun Bay for chicks but did see to seperate Adults... Over in the Windward Harbor area, we also found several adults by no off spring...

My wife is enjoying watching the loons, and I enjoy watching her excitement. I am sure we will behaving some more loon news soon as we continue to watch...

On a side note, the birds are definitely not intimidated by us... as we floated of Long island... the "family" made me uncomfortable getting to close to us!!!!!

Very sad!
 

We discovered two new babies about 2:00 today off Chase Island. We were watching them. They were very very small. The Loons started yelling then the babies were gone! So sad! Not even a day old. :(

Oh no! So sad to hear that!

Miracle
 

We witnessed a miracle today. Those baby loon chicks off Chase that completely disappeared.....well they have survived. Hurray! Can't figure out where they were. We even went out with binoculars and come not see them. I know at times they are protected with an adult holding them under their wing when in danger.

Amazing and wonderful that we see them swimming again around Mom.

I am so happy to hear that chasedawg! I hope the two can survive. Our second one was gone within a couple of days but number one is still ok.

Now that this thread has matured a bit, I can admit this is what I first thought of when I saw the title...

http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/

Thanks Misty Blue! I used volunteer to babysit the nesting sites and loon chicks years ago when Jane Irwin was the head of the "loon rangers".

We saw 4 adults close together and circling in the area that's between Pleasant, Little Whortleberry / Whortleberry Islands around 9:00 on Sunday morning while out in the kayaks. No chicks that we could see from roughly 200 feet away.

I saw a loon chick while kayaking by Suissevale yesterday. We still have our two loon chicks in Green's Basin.

You guys are great at keeping TWO babies! I wish you would teach the rest of the loons how to do it!!

What a difference
 

Seems very odd that loons can only manage one or rarely two chicks and yet I routinely see the very similar mergansers with over a dozen chicks. No wonder loons were going extinct.

Loons probably pay more attention to their one or two chicks. Ducks and geese that lose sight of a chick don't even notice.