Call of the wild calls volunteers
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
READFIELD — Bonnie Urquhart likes loons.
With a year-round home on the Maranacook Lake shoreline, she hears the bird's wild call throughout the summer and often sees one or two while paddling around in a kayak. Urquhart has also discovered nests on islands and has worked to protect the fish-eating, rapid-diving birds from harm.
On Saturday, from 7 to 7:30 a.m., she was patrolling the lake's northern basin with her husband and daughter in search of the red-eyed birds. Within five minutes after the family's speedboat left the dock, they spotted an adult and chick on the lake's east shore.
"The chick is about 10 days old. The parents are both very good. They both incubate the egg," Urquhart explained. A short distance away, the other parent floated on the water.
Immediately after seeing the web-footed birds under ideal conditions, Urquhart jotted down times of the sightings and approximate locations
Throughout much of Maine, more than 700 volunteers recorded similar data on lakes and ponds for the Maine Audubon Society. Faced with increasing pressure from shoreline development and threats from lead, mercury and dioxin poisoning, the society's 19th annual loon count helps biologists gauge the bird's overall health.
"If they ingest any lead in their system, they're dead in two weeks. Loons may be more sensitive to lead than other birds," said Dave Evers, executive director of the Biodiversity Research Institute in Falmouth.
Loons can live for 30 years and females can raise up to 13 chicks in their lifetime. They start mating at about three years old, and may raise up to two chicks a summer.
Urquhart said the chick she spied Saturday on the seven-mile-long lake was the second attempt at breeding by the parents. The duo abandoned their first nest in early June, which contained one egg "about the size of a woman's fist," and built another nest on the opposite end of the same Maranacook Lake island, she said.
"The second nest was spotted on June 19. It had one egg," said Urquhart. The parents will remain with the chick through the summer and into the fall before they each fly to the ocean to ride out the winter.
By 7:30 a.m., Urquhart had counted four adults and the one chick. The volunteers who covered the south basin were Bill and Joan Wing, and Jack and Caro Kaiser.
Over the past 50 years, many homes and camps were built along the Maranacook Lake shoreline and on the islands. Every time a new dwelling goes up and human activity intensifies, loons lose secluded areas to built nests.
Urquhart said about 25 percent of homes on the lake's north end are inhabited year-round and 75 percent are seasonal. Those percentages are just the opposite on the more populous south end in Winthrop.
Evers said loons die from lead poisoning after swallowing fishing line sinkers made of the metal. Lead sinkers are no longer sold in Maine but they are still used by some anglers who bought them before legislation banned their sale.
While lead contamination results in a quick death, Evers said mercury poisoning has longer-lasting repercussions for loons.
"It's a neurological toxin so it affects their behavior. One example of what might happen is that loons might not sit on their eggs," he said. Without that necessary body heat, eggs never hatch.
Studies to determine how mercury enters lakes, ponds and rivers are continuing. Evers said the poison gets into the loon's neurological system after they eat fish that have absorbed the metallic element.
The big, dense-boned birds —they can weigh 10 pounds — also eat frogs, crayfish, mussels, leeches and aquatic insects.
Ali Chaney, this year's supervisor of the Maine Audubon Society's loon count, said only 30 minutes are allotted for the work to prevent double-counting. In Kennebec County, 153 volunteers signed up for the task.
The official tallies will be available sometime in September. The society takes all the totals and then uses a random scientific analysis to determine the number of loons in Maine.
With an estimated population of 4,300 birds, the state is the loon capital of New England. Adult numbers have been growing in recent years, but the chick population has remained fairly stable.
"These numbers give us a good understanding of the loon population as it is now, and over time you can correlate what's going on at the lakes' level," said Chaney.
The counts provide extremely important information, but they fail to include the estimated number of loons that are mating each summer. Chaney said the society may seek to include those details in future census-takings.
Nancy Irish of West Gardiner was also out on the water Saturday hunting for loons with a pair of binoculars. She covered a section of Cobbosseecontee.
"I don't like them, I love them. I'm obsessed with them. They're just so special and to think that they've survived all these years. Some people think they're like ducks, but they're not. Ducks have 10 or 12 chicks and loons will have one or two," said Irish. Loons are one of the oldest species of birds in the world.
Loons arrive on 12-mile-long Cobbossee Lake the day after ice leaves and they stay until ice forms again in the fall, said Irish. This summer she has kept track of a newborn.
"Right now, they're (the parents) teaching the chick how to dive," said Irish. At one time, she said people harassed loons, but that activity has decreased in recent years, she added.
Because male and female loons are marked the same, the 700 volunteers out Saturday are unable to differentiate between the the sexes. Chaney said loons often depend on several nearby lakes and ponds for fishing, especially if they are raising chicks on a small water body.
She acknowledged that many people in Maine and elsewhere consider loons to be special birds.
"Local people really get nervous when anything happens to their loons," said Chaney. Besides man-induced problems, chicks are threatened by predators such as snapping turtles, raccoons and birds of prey.
Urquhart, a member of the Readfield Planning Board, said she tries to help loons survive as much as possible. If she feels a nest is in danger, she warns people away.
But another problem, one that has been building up for a quarter-century is more difficult to remedy. With a large number of homes along the Maranacook Lake shoreline — including some with nutrient-rich lawns —the likelihood for serious algae blooms increases each year.
Loons need clear, weed-free water to find their next meal. Improperly-controlled shoreline development accelerates algae and other plant growth in lakes and ponds, which results in clouded water.
On the final leg of their half-hour boat ride, Urquhart watched a loon fly overhead but the lone bird was omitted from the count because only birds in the water are tallied.
"They get really active this time of year, with their flying," she said. Other observers in the boat were her husband, Motte Hatchell, and their 4-year-old daughter, Tori.
The couple are so enamored with loons that the inside of their home is filled with prints, paintings and other items of their favorite bird. Outside, a sign that reads, "Loch Loon" hangs by the driveway and their two Ford Explorers sport the vanity registration plates of "LQQNS" and "LOOON."
Dan McGillvray—621-5642 dmcgillvray@centralmaine.com