By Milt Weinstein
Each July, the Loon Preservation Committee takes a census of loons on New Hampshire’s lakes and ponds. The results of the 2013 census were both encouraging and troubling. The good news is that the total number of loon pairs in the state was slightly up from 2012, from 280 to 284. This means that 568 paired adult loons made New Hampshire their home during the 2013 breeding season, an increase of 23% since the start of the Loon Recovery Plan in 2005. That’s the good news.
The troubling news is that only 63% of these loon pairs made a nest and, of those, only 58% (104 pairs) hatched a total of 157 chicks. Only 118 of these chicks are believed to have survived through August, based on follow-up monitoring. Although the total number of loon pairs was up, all the percentages that whittle down the potential number of chicks (568) to the actual number of survivors (118) were also higher than in recent years. The proportions of pairs nesting and hatching and the proportion of chicks surviving were all down.
The reasons for the lack of nesting success are unclear, but the usual suspects – shoreline development, water level fluctuations and lead ingestion from fishing tackle, among others – may all be involved. Fortunately for us, Eastman Lake and other smaller lakes in New Hampshire have bucked the trend and continue to record great breeding success. Eastman’s loons have produced two chicks in each of the last five years, the same number produced last year by the much larger and historically productive Squam Lake.
As we wait for the loons to return to Eastman Lake in the spring, let’s all do our part to give them space as we paddle to admire them.
For more information about New Hampshire’s loons and to learn what you can do to help protect them, contact the Loon preservation Committee at www.loon.org, (603) 476-LOON.
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