The 42nd year of Maine Audubon’s Annual Loon Count is fast approaching!
Adult Common Loons on their wintering grounds off the coast of Maine are likely already molting their winter plumage and transitioning back into breeding plumage, developing the distinctive pattern and colors many of us associate with loons, as well as new flight feathers for their pilgrimage to breeding lakes.
Often as soon as the ice melts, loons will start to appear on the lakes and ponds of Maine. They will start reclaiming their territories and engaging in courtship rituals with prospective breeding partners, and filling the air with their distinctive and beloved calls. Once the breeding season is underway, thousands of volunteers will be taking to the water on the third Saturday in July all across the state to count all adult loons and chicks that they see in a designated half hour period. This long running dataset has tracked the changes and trends in the population for more than four decades. The information allows us to assess the impacts of conservation efforts over time, and to flag any significant changes in the population, to aid better management in the future.
Last year Maine Audubon had the greatest amount of participation ever in the annual count: 1624 volunteers surveyed loons on 407 lakes. Thanks to this tremendous effort by community scientists we were able to estimate a Common Loon population of 3146 adults, south of the 45th parallel. Unfortunately, there are not enough lakes surveyed north of this line to estimate the population for the entire state.
That’s where you come in!
In an effort to expand our reach, involve more people in the count, and gain a better understanding of where loons are and what they’re doing in the northern part of the state, we will be introducing Extended Duration Surveys this summer. This is a pilot program for select remote and unsurveyed lakes. Community scientists volunteering to survey these lakes will have seven days (July 19 to July 26) to scout, access, and conduct a one-hour survey of their assigned lake. Many of these lakes lack boat launches or easy cartop access, and some range far from the beaten path.
These lakes will take a greater time and travel commitment than the standard loon count survey. You may have to hike in and survey from shore, or carry a kayak or canoe in, and in some cases it may be easiest to turn a survey into a camping trip. Many Maine lakes and ponds are only accessible through private land so you may be asked to help in securing landowner permission to conduct a survey.
If traveling and hiking into remote lakes and ponds to find unrecorded loons sounds like something you might be interested in, please contact me at pkeefe@maineaudubon.org and I can help find a lake to survey that is of interest to you.
