Loon enthusiasts ‘hope for a chick’

 

By Sue Tiffin

For
several years, residents in Ingoldsby have been keeping an eye on a
recurring loon’s nest on what Marj Andre calls “Gull Island,” in Lake
Kashagawigamog. But observers taking in the activity of a pair of loons
from a distance while on their docks or from the road haven’t been able
to celebrate a successful hatch. This year might be the year, they hope,
with two eggs currently being incubated and estimated to hatch near the
end of July.    
“The people who live up here, both cottagers and
current residents, their love of loons, their concern, it’s like the
gossip of everyone,” said Andre, who cottages nearby. “When you meet a
neighbour, one of the first things you say, after commenting on the
weather, is about the loons. You pass anybody, they’re talking about
loons, and reflecting on it.”

The
scene on the rock outcropping close to the shoreline has been an active
one, with residents sharing stories with each other – by email when
need be if seasonal residents are not yet up – chronicling what they’ve
witnessed: a gull and a loon nesting on the same land; a loon acting
wildly, her feathers possibly infested with blackflies; aggressive
battles between loons and ducks or loons and gulls, sometimes to the
death; the beloved egg, rolled about eight feet from the nest, abandoned
again. Andre, a former nature interpreter, and her neighbours speculate
on what might be happening to the eggs to leave them unhatched –
predators, busy water scaring the adult loons, humid and stormy days. 

“All
of this projection is what happens, and everyone’s sort of discussing
it, so that in and of itself, it’s like a soap opera,” she said. “Their
enthusiasm and attention to details, much like a soap opera, is there. I
find that as a social phenomenon quite fascinating.”
Andre said that
in a world full of troubles, it’s a positive thing that people are
aware of what is happening with their local wildlife, and not surprising
that they’re enthralled with the loons. She posts photos she takes with
a telephoto lens to social media, where people follow the egg’s saga.

In
annual reports published by the Lake Kashagawigamog Organization, news
of loon activity has been noted for years. In March 2014, there were
four known pairs of loons that returned to the lake each year. In the
fall of 2015, a survey of the loons on behalf of Bird Studies Canada
reported two chicks on Kash, and 24 adult loons on Kashagawigamog and
Grass lakes, with 14 being paired up. The reports remind residents to
limit boat traffic near nesting sites, as it can be disruptive.

Right
now throughout Canada, Kathy Jones, volunteer manager with Bird Studies
Canada, said overall loons are maintaining their population, but are
getting closer to that point of worry. Surveys look at how well the
loons are breeding, and how successful they are each year at their
hatch.

“At
this point it’s more of a warning and a red flag than an actual
problem,” she said. “We don’t know if this is just cyclical or if we
have something here to be concerned about.”
She said that at least
five or six pairs are breeding on Lake Kashagawigamog based on past
studies, and that there are a lot of variables as to why the Ingoldsby
birds might not have successfully hatched an egg there yet. 

Males
choose the nesting site for a pair, she said, and it can take up to
eight years for them to choose a good spot until they find one that
works for them. Andre’s “Gull Island,” might be a place where a loon
pair – and it could be a different loon pair being spotted each time –
can try each year and then opt for a different spot on the lake.  Lake
level fluctuations (loons can only handle a water increase of six inches
up or 12 inches down during the breeding season) and black fly
infestations can affect breeding and hatching. 

“The
best things residents can do is just work together and just be aware of
the wildlife, and make sure of things like along the shorelines they
[make] the smart decisions, slow down along the shorelines with the
boats – even canoes near a hidden nest can surprise an adult and [have
it abandon the nest], just steer clear, stay away,” she said. 

She said in the long-term, working toward a healthy lake is essential.

“A
healthy lake is healthy for loons,” she said. “If you have a healthy
loon population, your lake is probably doing pretty good.”

“People
get very attached to the loons, they want their loon pair to do well
and have healthy chicks and everything else and I get that, and it’s
hard to accept that you know what, if you have 10 pairs on that lake a
year, you need to have five chicks survive,” she said. “They really are
designed as a species to only have one or two chicks survive every
couple of years. So while we absolutely love seeing our loon chicks,
they don’t always succeed at parenting in a given year.”

Jones
said that July 1 is usually the time for first hatches, and she
suspects this loon’s nest is a second attempt at a hatch. Incubation is
about four weeks, 28 days.

“The
fact that [Andre’s] only seeing one loon at a time, which means one’s
on the nest, one’s out doing whatever it’s doing, I’m pretty sure, I’m
willing to bet that in the next two weeks sometime they’re going to get a
chick hatched, they’re going to have chicks,” said Jones.

In
shared emails between neighbours ensuring someone will report on the
Ingoldsby nest activity while others are away, one last sign-off says it
all: “Let’s hope for a chick.”
For more information on the common loon, visit birdscanada.org