Canadian Lakes Loon Survey - 2014 Update

This has been quite the summer for watching Loons and trying to determine whether or not we were blessed with youngsters! Numerous trips into known nesting areas; sometimes lasting hours; often involving tying up to logs in a canoe and setting up a spotting scope; failed to reveal a young Loon. It was indeed quite the mystery, as the Loons played their many different diversionary games that led us to believe there may have been a little one.

It's been a while since there's been a baby Loon born on our lake even though eggs have been laid (and even multiple times in a given year) but have failed to hatch. The nests have frequently been abandoned; we believe because of the varying water levels so common to reservoir lakes. Those changing water levels prevent the Loons from travelling back and forth from the nest to the water and properly tending to the eggs.

Any Loon that appears to be a youngster that is seen this late in the year would be deemed to be a "fly-in" since it would not have been observed growing up on the lake from it's nesting days. As such, a "fly-in" cannot be counted as being born at Loon Lake.

Hopefully, we'll be more fortunate next year!

Throughout our observing, we did notice that a practice that existed several years ago seemed to have returned to Loon Lake. And that was the rarely observed gathering of Loons in numbers of about five to seven. The Loons swim around, occasionally diving down, and talk to each other. The exact purpose of why these gatherings occur is unknown; and perhaps it's just a social thing !