Posts in Category: Turtles

Update on All Three Loon Families

On August 17, 2025 - Loons, Turtles, Wildlife Photography

There’s been lots of action on the Middleton’s and Weston’s ponds, the Eastons spent a quiet morning. I loved being back out on the water rather than down at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Fair.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by at the Fair, I love how devoted the loons’ fans are. I promised three people that I’d head out to see what the Westons were up to on my first trip. That plan was overcome by events, but I did get up to see them yesterday.

Last Monday, the 11th, John Cooley from the Loon Preservation Committee, emailed to say that Mrs. Middleton had been rescued after she was found sitting in the road near her pond. LPC dispatched one of their biologists after a passing motorist alerted them. The biologist rounded Mrs. Middleton up and checked her out. She didn’t appear to be injured. But, the intruding female loon that has been challenging her all summer was on the pond. Best guess for what happened is the intruder drove Mrs. Middleton off the pond and she was confused and landed in the road. LPC took Mrs. Middleton to a nearby pond and released her. I haven’t been to visit her but LPC has a couple reports that she’s doing well. John suspects we’ll see her show back up on her pond within a couple weeks. But, the intruder is still out there….

Tuesday morning, I headed to the Middleton’s pond to see what was up.

I quickly located dad sleeping in deep water, slowly spinning around. He must have been paddling gently with one foot. Littleton wasn’t with him, I went searching to see what he was up to. The top of his band is visible allowing me to ID him.

One of our great blue herons was watching for breakfast in one of the coves. But no Littleton. I headed to the loons’ favorite breakfast spot, still no Littleton…

I’d gone the wrong way… Littleton was at the far end of the pond. Dad woke up and set to rustling up some breakfast.

Littleton was happy to provide encouragement.

Adolescent loons are insistent when they’re hungry. They’ll nibble on their parents’ neck – often tugging hard on the parent’s feathers – until the parent comes through with a meal. I’m convinced this is why the parents leave first in the fall….

Dad and Littleton discussing breakfast….

Dad gets the hint and heads downstairs to see what’s on the menu. Tell me Littleton doesn’t look pleased with himself. All was peaceful when I had to head home.

Wednesday morning I headed back up to see what was going on.

Dad was out alone foraging for his breakfast.

After a time, I found Littleton preening. He was off by himself well down the pond. Chick’s down is waterproof but when they start growing adult feathers, they need to start preening.

Littleton finished preening and gave a nice stretch.

Here’s a good look at Littleton, you can see his feathers are coming in and his down is falling out. He’ll grow into the gray non-breeding plumage this fall and change to black & white in the spring.

Preening complete, it was time to get some breakfast. Littleton is capable of feeding himself? by now. But loon chicks are teenagers at heart and would rather have a parent provide meals.

Friday morning, I headed to check in with the Eastons.

The family was foraging together in the fog when I arrived. Dad took time to stretch.

One of the beavers had been up working late and kept an eye on me as he swam by on his way home for the day.

Mom left Leaston with dad and went to check out the pond and find some breakfast for herself.

Dad and Leaston discussing what’s for breakfast.

Yup. Crayfish again.

That seemed fine with Leaston….

Dad brought several crayfish….

Leaston shows off a fancy over-the-shoulder grab for another crayfish.

All was calm on the pond when I headed in. Saturday I made it up to check on the Westons. Dad was on the pond with the chicks. Mom wasn’t around. That’s not surprising. By this time in the season, the parents will often head off to a nearby pond where they can relax for a bit.

As I was putting the boat in, I heard both chicks practicing their wails. They produced a short, sharp call that was almost exactly unlike a wail. But, they’ll learn. As I headed up the pond, I head them practicing takeoffs. They’ll probably be airborne within a week.

Soon after I caught up with the family, a loon flew over, calling. I’d expected it was mom returning for duty. But the family flattened out – the loon overhead was an intruder. The intruder circled the pond. I was looking for him high overhead. When I spotted him, he was low, well below the tree line and lining up for a landing. He passed directly overhead at about 20 feet – the best view I’ve had of a loon in flight.

Dad went to intercept the intruder. Here he’s displaying how big and tough he is, explaining the intruder would be a fool to mess with him. Dad skipped over the circling that is the usual opening move with an intruder. I suspect this intruder has been here before and dad was ready to get down to business.

Sure enough, dad postured for a few seconds and then attacked the intruder! Dad got a couple good hits in with his wings before the intruder backed off.

The intruder retreated with dad in close pursuit!

Dad took a few moments to display – he found several ways to explain to the intruder that his absence was required….

Not only dancing, but yodeling as he danced…..

Still dancing…..

And still going….

Still dancing!

The intruder took the hint and backed off….

Dad gave a final wing flap that sure looked like ‘and stay out!’

The intruder had retreated but hadn’t flow off. Dad went searching for him, covering the length of the pond a couple times while the intruder hid in a cove.

One of the chicks intercepted dad while he was still looking for the intruder.

“Look, I know you’re fighting for our survival and all, but I could use a snack….” First things first…. dad ignored him and continued searching.
The intruder reappeared for another round…..

Dad still wasn’t having it! He explained he didn’t care for the intruder’s company and the intruder should just go away.

Once again, dad promptly followed up his threat by going after the intruder.

The intruder went wing-rowing away up the pond.

The intruder kept rowing to the far end of the pond.

After a time, the intruder decided he’d had enough for the day and flew off.

Dad rounded up the chicks and they went for second breakfasts. One chick kept busy feeding himself? while the other insisted dad provide the snacks.

And a good look at the other chick. It was getting late and time for me to head out.

On the way to the boat launch, I passed a painted turtle. This turtle is shedding the top layer of his? scutes – the plates that make up his shell. The scutes are made of keratin, like our fingernails. Adult turtles usually shed once a year. The sheds will fall off shortly and the turtle will have a nice glossy shell again for a time.

I’ll be back out again this week to see how everyone is doing.

, ,

Along the Connecticut Shore

On July 13, 2025 - Shorebirds, Turtles, Wildlife Photography

Back on July 3, Chris Roberts, who runs the great Vermont birding – PLUS Facebook group, offered to show me some of his favorite spots along the Connecticut Shore. They were all well west of what little Connecticut Shore I’d explored.

Chris is a serious, hardcore birder. Meaning he’s nuts. I offered to drive and asked how early we’d have to leave to get to the shore for sunrise. He was game for me to pick him up at 0300. That’s cool, unfortunately I was going to pick him up some 80 miles south of me. Hitting the road at 0130 to be on location for sunrise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Along the way to pick him up, I got my closest ever look at a black bear. I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I’d have liked, I was too busy standing up on the brake pedal. The bear sauntered onto route 91 and stopped in my lane to see what was coming. I managed to stop with 20 or 25 feet to spare. The bear had a good look at me and continued on his errand.

We arrived at the beach as the sun rose and set out to see what we could find.

There were a number of piping plovers with chicks ranging from just a few days old to near-adult sized juveniles. There is already at least one chick under this parent as two more tuck under.

We found seven northern diamondback terrapins out on the beach looking for a spot to lay their eggs or already laying eggs. They come ashore at high tide to make sure their nests will be well above water level. They’re listed as a vulnerable species and this was my first sighting of them. They live in the brackish tidal marshes along the east coast.

Another northern diamondback terrapin along the shore. I didn’t get close enough to tell if she was laying eggs or just sitting.

American oystercatchers were on my to-see list. I haven’t seen any since I got serious about wildlife photography, these are the first photos I’ve gotten of them.

Oystercatchers are cool looking birds. Their orange eye adds some pop to the photos. Whoever is in charge of banding Connecticut’s oystercatchers is doing an outstanding job. Almost all of the oystercatchers we saw were banded. Likely recently, we found several breeding pairs with consecutively numbered bands. Here’s ole N51 who, along with N52, had a nest on the beach.

As you’d guess from their name, they feed on oysters, along with mussels, clams and other invertebrates. They search for shellfish with their shells partly open. When they find one, they stick their bill inside and severe the muscle that lets the shellfish close their shell. (I had to go look up the difference between clams, muscles and oysters. They’re all ‘bivalves,’ meaning they have two half shells they can close to protect themselves. Learning maybe more than I needed, bivalve comes from the Latin “bis” – meaning two – and “valvae” from the leaves of a door. The differences are their shapes, their type of habitat and their flavor, which I didn’t take time to compare.
Watching the piping plovers, we saw a parent doing the ‘broken-wing’ display. They’re like killdeer and when they sense a threat to their chicks, they feign injury and make a big deal about it. The idea is to get the predator to chase them and lure the predator away from the chicks.

A small flock of gulls had landed on the beach near this bird’s chicks. The chicks had frozen in place and were hard to spot. The parent tried to draw the gulls’ attention away from the chicks. It worked this time.

This section of beach was covered in a few feet of abandoned shells. This proved to be very good camouflage for the plovers. When I’ve seen plover chicks on the sandy beaches in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, I’ve often wondered how any of the chicks survive, they seem to stand out clearly on the sand. They’re much, much harder to see against the shells.

The shells are several feet deep along the beach.

A parent and chick blending in nicely against the shells.

And the chicks are just adorable.

The plover chicks scoot along in short bursts, constantly changing direction.

Another chick, this time on a sandier spot.

And a chick just being cute.

This chick went right down to the water’s edge before heading back up the beach.

Our buddy N51 reappeared and started down to the water.

N51’s mate, N52, showed up and went foraging along side. I’ve reported the bands and when I get the confirmation, we may be able to tell who is who from that. There’s no way for people to tell by looking at them.

It was time to head on to the next location and we headed back to the parking lot. There were several horseshoe crabs in the shallow water. A flock of gulls had dragged this on up on the beach and were trying to flip it over as we approached. We spooked the gulls and the crab headed back to the water.

At the next spot, we found a pool with several herons and egrets. Chris spotted a tricolored heron, I saw a clump of brush. We moved on.

Next up was another oystercatcher. Meet N00. We soon found N99 and I suspect they were banded in relatively quick succession.

There were a few willets foraging in the shallow water.

Our timing was right to watch the Atlantic sand fiddler crabs emerge from their burrows. They live in colonies with each male claiming a territory. When the tide recedes, they come out of their burrows. And display their large claw – both to warn off neighboring males and to attract females. Only the males have the size difference between their claws, females have two similarly sized claws. There were several dozen males waiving their claws around.

They have interesting markings on their backs.

And they look like they mean business if you try to interfere with them.

There was also a colony of least terns along the beach. A small flock came down to the shallows to preen. And to have the guys carry fish around to impress the ladies.

Turning around from the last photo, I discovered a piping plover had crept up to me while my back was turned.

There were more piping plover chicks that couldn’t have been more than a week old out foraging on the beach.

Another plover chick that stopped briefly to look around.

Well above water level, the beach is roped off to protect the plovers and terns nesting spots.

This guy is a little late in the game. He was still looking for a lady to commit his entire season to. He was industriously displaying his fish to the passing ladies.

Here’s a tern stretching. I think. He might be showing off his disco moves to attract a lady.

We were able to spot a couple of young chicks. They were well hidden chicks hiding under some plants.

There were three juvenile oyster catchers foraging on the beach just above the waves.

And a parent delivering a meal to one of the juveniles.

Lots of interesting critters to watch and photograph. I’m looking forward to getting down there again for a longer stay.

, , , ,

Pin It on Pinterest