"Loon Pond", NY: Nesting on a Rock

The banded pair of loons both returned to Loon Pond in April after the ice melted.  The male arrived first, by 4/16, and the female had joined him by 4/20.  She is at least 26 years old now and has been on Loon Pond every year since she was banded in 2002, and who knows how many years before that.  Loons are usually five years old before they breed for the first time.

The black flies were pretty bad in many parts of the Adirondacks this spring, including Loon Pond.  The loons spent much of their time diving, not just to catch fish but also to escape the biting flies.  They waited to nest, possibly for the black flies to diminish.  On June 8, an intruder loon was on the pond.  The loon pair was searching for it, swimming around and craning their necks, and frequently peering underwater.  One of the loons, probably the male, located the intruder and interacted with it, swimming close, while the two loons looked at each other and checked each other out.  In the meantime, the other loon, the female, had disappeared.  I spotted a black dot at the far southwest end of the pond.  Could the loon be on a nest?

My binoculars revealed a loon on a nest on a large, partially vegetated rock, about the size of a bathtub.  This was a new loon nest location for the Loon Pond loons, and a new one for me.  I’ve seen loons nest on islands, bog mats, marshes, the mainland wooded shore, beaver lodges, and sandbars, but never a rock before now.  I guess a rock is just a tiny island, after all.  Meanwhile, the intruder loon ran across the water and took flight, leaving the pond and flying toward Nearby Pond.

I eased my canoe closer, knowing that I had to set up a nest camera and that I would probably flush the loon off the nest in order to do so.  I approached very slowly and quietly because I didn’t want the loon to push off in a hurry and possibly kick an egg off the nest.  The Loon Pond loons are average in their tolerance for humans, and do not usually allow close approach.  The female eased gently into the water when I got too close for her comfort, and I could see two eggs on the nest, the usual number.  I quickly set up the nest camera on a nearby island facing the nest, and paddled away fast so the loons could return to incubating.  When I was far from the nest, I turned and spotted a loon climbing back on.

I returned on June 14 to monitor the pond.  The female loon was fishing in the middle, diving frequently.  I caught a glimpse of her orange band.  The male was on the nest, but by the time I could see him, he was already in hangover position with his head and neck low, indicating stress, even though I was a third of the pond away.  I took a quick distant photo with my telephoto lens, and paddled away, not wanting him to leave the nest.  On my way back to shore, I noticed a snapping turtle on a beaver lodge, digging with powerful front legs trying to excavate a nest hole in the mud on the lodge. 

Will the Loon Pond loons successfully incubate their two eggs and hatch two fluffy black chicks?  Or will a predator find the nest and have loon eggs for lunch?  If that happens, hopefully the nest camera will tell us who the predator was.  Stay tuned for another update on Loon Pond.  Loon eggs take 27-29 days to hatch, so there are only three weeks to go before the eggs might hatch!

E. George, ACLC Field Staff & Loon Naturalist

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