The end of the year is a time for lazy photographers to sneak in a couple extra posts looking back at the year. Who am I to buck tradition? Let’s take a look back at how the three loon families fared this year.
On Sunday, March 22, at 2:30 pm, I’ll be presenting my slideshow about visiting the puffins, et al, on Machias Seal Island off of Cutler, ME, at the Tenney Memorial Library in Newbury, VT. Free and everyone welcome.
If you’re new to my blog, I follow loon families on three ponds. To protect their privacy I’ve named the loons on the pond to my east the ‘Eastons.’ The pond to my west hosts the ‘Westons.’ And the pond between those two hosts the ‘Middletons.’ On to the loons.
The Westons
The Westons are usually the first family on their nest. They usually beat the other two families by a week or 10 days. This year they outdid themselves and were over two weeks early – the earliest hatching I’ve seen. They hatched two chicks in early June. Neither adult is banded, making it hard to tell who is who. Here’s one adult stretching early in the spring. And later in April one of our adults heading out to fly some errands. The morning the chicks left the nest was chilly with very thick fog. I hadn’t realized the chicks had hatched and spent a couple cold hours parked in the brush watching for other critters. This was as bright as the sun got that morning.
Another morning without sun. The chicks are two weeks old.
Feeding time for the two and a half week old chicks.
One of the chicks tackling a horned pout almost as large as the chick.
By the end of July, Mrs. Weston had disappeared. Dad was still around and occasionally faced off against an intruder. Mom wasn’t seen again. I could ID the remaining loon as Dad as he would yodel at the intruder. The encounters with the intruder were brief, but intense. Here’s Dad lunging at the intruder. The intruder left the pond shortly afterwards.
In the third week of August, the chicks were working hard to get airborne.
Success! Soon after they learned to circle the pond, they’d disappear for days at a time, apparently scouting the other ponds in the area before returning to spend a few days on their pond.
Both chicks fledged, but I fear we lost Mrs. Weston.
The Middletons
Both of the Middletons were banded in 2024. Dad returned to the pond on schedule – but was keeping company with an unbanded loon. She stuck around a couple weeks. Between my visits, Mrs. Middleton reappeared and stayed to hatch and raise one chick.
An intruder regularly flew in to challenge Mrs. Middleton. The intruder wasn’t banded but it seems a safe assumption it was the female that was on the pond early in the spring. On this early June morning, Mrs. Middleton has driven the intruder from the pond. And the escape route took her close to my kayak.
Mrs. Middleton stretching on another beautiful spring morning.
But the intruder kept returning to challenge Mrs. Middleton. Here’s Mrs. M. explaining, once again, the intruder should go away. The challenger grew more persistent as the season progressed.
Both of the Middletons are attentive parents and shared equally in taking care of the chick, ‘Littleton.’Littleton riding along on Mom’s back. This never gets old. OK, I’m anthropomorphizing but, come on! – tell me that doesn’t look like a proud parent.
Loon pairs often preen at the same time. Rarely do they finish and stretch at the same time. And I’ve never seen both stretch at the same time close enough to get both birds in the frame before. Littleton is now about four weeks old and too big to climb aboard Dad’s back. But he’s isn’t ready to adult. He tucked his head under Dad’s wing while Dad was trying to nap. Littleton was kicking slowly, spinning the pair in a lazy circle.
Here, Littleton is about five weeks old. He can find food for himself and his parents are encouraging him to do so. But, like teenagers everywhere, he still wants his parents to feed him. Grabbing Dad’s neck is a subtle hint he wants to be fed.
In August, the intruding loon drove Mrs. Middleton from the pond. She landed on a paved road near the pond. A passing motorist knew about the Loon Preservation Committee and reported it. LPC sent a biologist out to capture and examine her. She didn’t appear to be injured and was relocated to a nearby unoccupied (by loons) pond. Sadly, she died a few days later.
Dad continued to care for Littleton.
Littleton continued to grow. Dad moved on in the first week of September, leaving Littleton on the pond.
In the second week of September, I found Littleton foraging and practicing his flying. I spent the morning watching him and exploring the pond to see who else was about. There’s a tiny cove on his pond. I pulled in there to see who might be in the reeds. When I headed in, Littleton was a few hundred yards down the pond on his own. I spent several minutes checking things out in the reeds – without finding anything. When I turned to head back out on the main part of the pond, Littleton was sitting just a few feet behind my boat. I sat still and he spent some time foraging in the shallow water. He tried on these weeds, but seemed to decide they were too ostentatious.
After Littleton moved away enough to let me move my boat, I headed back to the main part of the pond. With Littleton following.
It was getting time for me to head home. I took one last look around the pond with my binoculars. While I was doing that, Littleton dove and swam under my boat, making a couple loops directly under the boat. I carry a GoPro video camera, hoping to get a chance to film a loon underwater. The GoPro was still in my backpack and I kicked myself. A few minutes later, Littleton again dove and swam under the boat – with the GoPro STILL in my backpack. I gave myself a good cursing. And took the GoPro out…..
This time I was ready….
Over the years, I’ve had a few occasions where the loons approached my boat much closer than you’d think they’d judged safe. Littleton was certainly deliberately interacting with me. Was he lonely? How would you tell? Is there another reason? Littleton had gotten airborne and did a lap around his pond earlier in the morning. This was the last time I saw him.
The Eastons
The Eastons got off to a late start – about two weeks behind their normal schedule. They’ve been a very successful pair – fledging two chicks each year for the last four years. This year, one of their eggs didn’t hatch. I contacted LPC and one of their interns collected the egg to see if they could determine why it didn’t hatch. I haven’t heard if they learned anything yet. This is Dad on the nest. In this pair, Dad is a much more attentive parent that Mom. Mom does her share of sitting on the nest and will take some time feeding the chicks, but Dad does the heavy lifting.
The chick that hatched – who became ‘Leaston’ – didn’t have any feathers on his? chest and belly. The chick spent most of the time just sitting on Dad’s back. I worried about him, he seemed lethargic and didn’t fidget much. I suspect it was cold in the water. Mom was good about showing up and feeding Leaston while aboard Dad. Over a couple weeks, the feathers grew in and Leaston became more active and otherwise seemed to develop normally.
Mom delivering a meal.
This time Leaston is aboard Mom and Dad delivers.
Leaston riding aboard Dad again.
And giving me a look from aboard Dad.
As his feathers grew in, Leaston started spending more time in the water.
Although Dad carried him a fair bit even after he was getting too big to ride.
While Dad babysat, Mom wandered off for her own breakfast and a stretch.
Dad handing off a horned pout almost as long as Leaston.
A couple times over the season, the Eastons had to drive an intruder off the pond. Here the intruder is wing rowing away from a very annoyed Mr. Easton.
Another round of being chased by Mr. Easton took the intruder close past my boat. Shortly after this, he departed the pond.
Mom on her own again while Dad babysits.And again on yet another morning, Dad is tending Leaston while mom takes time for herself. My suspicion is that she’s a young, really pretty loon…..By the end of August, Leaston was more or less tending for himself. Mom scooted for the year sometime around the first of September, Dad several days later. Leaston cruising along his pond at sunrise on the last morning I’d see him.
So, not a great year for the families. Three families fledged four chicks, and apparently we lost two adult females. Let’s hope for a better year for them in 2026.
And I missed one of the characters in my last post.
Meet Charlize T. Heron.
I’ll get one more post up in the next couple days with my favorite non-loon images. Hopefully before New Year’s…. but in case I’m late, Happy New Year!
Thank you. I have enjoyed your loon tales.
Thank you for all the wonderful posts.
Thank you!