Now I call the female “the flighty young thing.” When the male yodels at her, I swear I see her toss her head and glide away. Levels of contaminants from Squam eggs during 2005-2007 were two to nine times higher than levels found in eggs collected from the other lakes. In an Ojibwa creation story, Loon was the very voice of the Creator in spirit form. I hand him the binoculars. His summer place was located near the spot where film crews shot On Golden Pond, which opens with Katharine Hepburn’s quavering call to Henry Fonda, playing her irascible husband: “Norman … the loons! Over the next weeks, we see him struggle a few times and get briefly airborne, only to drift back to the water. Heading west on Route 25 at Moultonborough, turn left onto Blake Road at Moultonborough Central School (look for The Loon Center sign). (The next day, Susie Burbidge will collect the egg for possible testing.) The success of LPC’s model was startlingly clear across the Connecticut River, where the Vermont Loon Recovery Project took citizen science to new levels. He had long studied osprey colonies on Long Island Sound and had been stunned by recent precipitous declines in those colonies to levels even below the DDT era. You must see “On Golden Pond”! In 1983, only seven pairs of loons had nested in the entire state; by 2005, the year Vermont removed loons from its endangered-species list, 53 nesting pairs had produced 57 surviving chicks. An adult loon feeds a minnow to a loon chick last week on the northern end of Squam Lake. The Loon Preservation Committee had shown that it was possible to reverse the decline of a threatened species. Then during the spring and into the summer of 2010, crude oil poured from the destroyed Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana. Field biologists funded out of Wood’s deep khaki pockets determined that raccoons, drawn by garbage bins and roadside trash, were robbing eggs from shoreline nests. Successful but highly specialized, loons ended up occupying a lone evolutionary limb. Loons fight for the chance to be parents. Squam’s loon population has also experienced extremely high levels of mortality from lead fishing tackle. Fish & Wildlife band around one leg, then drives him to a rehabilitator in Maine. Gradually, counts ticked upward. On Squam, nesting pairs left the lake at the end of one successful breeding season and didn’t return the next. Please arrive 15 minutes before your cruise departure time. “Is it there? Their set of nesting requirements is narrow: They need clear, clean water; abundant fish stocks; and undisturbed areas in which to raise their young. Park in Science Center parking lots and follow the walking path across Route 113 to Lake Cruise Headquarters. mountlombard wrote a review Oct 2020. Squam Lakes biologist Loon Preservation Committee ----- June 2nd, 2018. Our Work. Underwater, though, those legs make sense. Across New Hampshire, the number of nesting loon pairs had tripled. This 675 sq. Despite his efforts, Squam’s loon population continued to slip. This video is unavailable. Loon pairs are mostly settled in their territories, and one pair is already on the nest!! I finally spot him, 50 yards away, motionless on the ice. Find and collect loon carcasses, determine causes of death, and test liver samples from dead loons for contaminants and pathogens, Band loons to allow us to identify and track individual bird and collect blood and feather samples for analysis, Determine survival and breeding success of previously banded and sampled loons, and related survival and breeding success of individuals to their levels of contaminants and pathogens, Incorporate results into a systems dynamics or other explanatory model to determine the relative contributions of a wide range of possible stressors on the mortality and reproductive failure of loons on Squam Lake, Restore and maintain a healthy and stable population of loons on Squam Lake as a component of a healthy statewide population of loons. On Walden pond number signaled an expanding population ; a lower number warned of a threatened species Center lots! On us Hampshire, to give him the numbers ve been keeping anxious watch, on... 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