First Loon Sighting 2022
Lorraine and I spent a week up in NH in June. This was one of my amazing mornings in my kayak.
Below is my email to our contact at the Loon Preservation Committee and his response…. 😊
Hi Phil and Everyone at LPC!
I thought you might be interested… Lorraine and I arrived for a short stay at our place last week and there were no loons. This was the first time in 29 years that we can ever remember no loons at this time of the year. Then on the afternoon of June 14th a single loon flew in!
The next morning I was up before the sunrise and in my kayak with my tripod and zoom 100-500 lens hoping that the loon had spent the night – I was not disappointed. With a beautiful full moon setting I spotted the loon and quietly and slowly made my way towards the middle portion of the lake.
Eventually the loon came in my general direction.
The lake was still with absolutely no wind so I just stayed in my spot thinking he or she (we’ll go with she) might just decide to take off as I have seen them do hundreds of times – I can’t count how many photographs I have taken over the years trying to capture their stunning beauty. Well, everything lined up perfectly and she was heading past me when she stopped suddenly and did all the tell-tale signs of getting ready for a take-off! I just held my breath and I hoped it would happen – and it did!
While I was photographing her during take-off, I noticed a very bright red color and my heart sank thinking she had a fishing bobber tangled in one of her feet. I kept shooting and was fully prepared to paddle right in to contact Phil to report what I had seen. She did not take flight but instead landed on the other side of the lake. I looked at the back of my camera to enlarge one of the photos in the series I had just taken and was SO relieved to see that it was not a bobber – it was a band!
About 2 minutes later she did take off and flew out and over the lake calling as she left. I have finally had the time to download and sort the photos and hope that these will help you in the work that you do. You will see clearly that there are no numbers on any of the bands but maybe this system doesn’t use them? If you can let me know anything about this loon I would love to hear from you. I have not seen her since she flew out that morning.
With my gratitude and thanks,
Cheryl
The following morning I received this reply from Phil!
Hi, Cheryl!
That loon you discovered is a female that was captured on Trout Pond in Maine in 2017 and brought to Massachusetts for their translocation project. This is the first sighting since she fledged in 2017! Very exciting and very interesting, please keep an eye out for her in the future, we’d all love to see where she ends up! I’ll look around nearby lakes for her as well, such as Grafton Pond, Highland Lake, Little Sunapee, and Crystal, all about ten miles or less as the loon flies. Thank you again!
Very Respectfully,
Phil Keefe
Wow!
Late summer update - Unfortunately that seems to have been her only overnight and morning on our lake. We are very hopeful that the loons will return next year so that we can once again hear their hauntingly beautiful calls and witness their beauty.