Dramatic Loon Saga: Heroic Rescue, Unhappy Ending

By Richard Knox, InDepth NH

It was a story that lifted the hearts of uncounted loon lovers (and who isn’t?).

On Fourth of July weekend, in the most highly trafficked part of Squam Lake, a young couple out for a boat ride came “super-close to hitting a small black thing” bobbing near Moon Island. Closer inspection revealed a newborn loon chick far from its parents.

Liz Brennan and Kaleb Phelps got in touch with the Loon Preservation Committee (LPC). Biologist Tiffany Grade gave them permission to pick up the baby loon if they could. In the attempt Liz fell head-first into the water, but the chick clambered up on her chest and they got it in the boat.
Read original story here Rescuing a Lost Baby Loon in Squam Lake.

They assumed an approaching adult loon was the chick’s parent, so they lowered the baby into the water. But the adult had murderous intent, tossing the chick into the air again and again. Kaleb managed to scare the adult away. Liz rescued the baby again and snuggled it in a towel.

When Grade arrived on the scene she deduced the chick had hatched a day or so before on Perch Island, a good distance away, and been swept away by boat wakes. She took the baby there and later reported to Liz and Kaleb it was safely riding on its parent’s back, as baby loons do for their first two or three weeks.

Sadly, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Soon after Grade left, nearby residents reported four adult loons invading the nesting territory. The father loon left the chick by Perch Island to chase the intruders away. And though he reunited with his chick, the exhausted and food-deprived chick died.

Grade says the chick likely experienced exposure as well. “Loon chicks cannot completely control their own body temperature when they first hatch, which is one of the reasons they ride on adults’ backs,” she says.

Since nearby Squam residents retrieved the chick’s body, the LPC can conduct a post-mortem exam to identify factors that contributed to its death. But Grade thinks it was largely a matter of timing: “If it had hatched a few days earlier or a few days later, the family would likely have been able to make its way to its protected brooding area and been fine,” she says. The continuous boat wakes that swept the chick away from its parents would have been far less threatening.

The episode underscores the vulnerability of loon chicks at this crucial time of year, when chicks are hatching. Each one is precious in the stakes it represents for the long-term health of this iconic species.

Loons are long-lived – the oldest recorded individual bird returned to Lake Umbagog this spring at the ripe old age of at least 35 years. So the loss of a chick costs decades of potential contribution to the health of the species.

Above: Data on Squam Lake loons shows a general decline in nesting pairs, chicks hatched, chicks surviving and average number of surviving chicks per nesting pair, with some improvement in the latest period (2018-2024). Courtesy of Loon Preservation Committee

Loons must contend with a wide variety of hazards – increased boating, rising temperatures, more violent storms, and growing populations of shoreline predators such as racoons and minks that like to feast on loon eggs.

Moreover, Squam’s loon population is especially beset by elevated levels of chemical contaminants as well as poisoning from lead fishing tackle. Two decades ago a sudden influx of contaminants caused a massive die-off of Squam loons. Seven of its 16 breeding loon pairs disappeared, a 44 percent die-off unprecedented for any large lake in the LPC’s 50-year history.

The LPC’s data on Squam show a gradual improvement in nesting pairs and surviving chicks since 2008, but the lake’s loon population remains fragile. An average of only 0.3 chicks per territorial pair survived to fledging between 2018 and 2024. That’s substantially below the long-term statewide average of 0.5 surviving chicks per pair and, ominously, the 0.48 rate needed to maintain a viable loon population.

However, there is good news since the death of the rescued chick. As of late Tuesday, July 15, Grade reports another new-hatched chick on Squam, bringing the current total there to four. And the lake has two additional nests with eggs still incubating.

So boaters should still stay alert to loon chicks.

Grade cautions that not every lone chick needs to be rescued. Loon parents “will often stash chicks safely along a shoreline” while they fish. Observers should report their concerns to the LPC at 603-476-5666. After hours and on weekends they can fill out an online form at https://loon.org/report-loon/ and an LPC staffer will see it.

For those who want to do something useful for loons, it’s not too late to be part of the annual statewide loon census on Saturday, July 19. Between 8:00 and 9:00 AM, volunteer observers are asked to record loon sightings on their nearby lakes for the entire hour, including the number of adults, chicks and immature birds and a few other important details. Interested people can access the census form at https://loon.org/census/form/. They need to submit the completed forms – by mail, online, by email or fax – by July 27.

The annual loon census is an important tool to keep track of populations and target efforts to increase reproductive success.

Richard Knox of Sandwich is a science writer with a long-time interest in loons.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.