Where are the Loon Chicks?

One of the best parts of my summer is being on several bodies of water each week. Over the course of the season I am usually on at least a dozen different ponds (most of you call them lakes), the Saint George River on both the freshwater and saltwater sections and at least one other coastal river. Over the last 25 years I have watched the loon population rise to the point where I am expecting to see at least a couple on every trip. In fact on today’s family fishing trip we saw several including a couple that let me get quite close with the Lund. I am sure that there were some excellent photos taken by my clients. Similar to the one in the header of my web page.

With that many loon sightings every summer I usually see a few chicks (old blog post about one sighting) and watch them grow up over the summer. A wet spring with rising water levels when the loons are nesting can make for a poor hatch of loon chicks. I do not remember a rain storm like that last spring; still I am not seeing chicks on any of the ponds that I visit.

Maine Audubon does an annual count in early July so I am curious to hear the results of that effort. Maybe it was something local or I have simply forgotten one big rain event that made the difference.

Maybe it is a statewide impact of some sort. I am sure that there will still be plenty of loons for my clients to watch in the coming years but this year has been noticeable for the lack of loon chicks.