Above photo: Loon and young at Fields Pond; photo by Wayne Foote
“This year, three eggs have been laid on one raft, which is exceptionally rare!” says Maine Audubon Loon Restoration Project lead scientist Tracy Hart. Her note reveals her delight in the ways loons continue to surprise us. “Sometimes,” she says, “a new egg will be laid on top of a failed clutch, but it appears these three eggs were laid all on the same day. The pair is busily incubating all three eggs and we’re excited to see if all three manage to hatch!”
Who would have thought that an oil spill could lead us to these discoveries? And yet, here we are. The Loon Restoration Project is a five-year project, funded through an oil spill settlement fund administered by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, which aims to increase loon nesting success and decrease loon mortality by engaging volunteers in three efforts:
• Placing artificial nests (rafts) and monitoring nesting success of loon breeding pairs;
• Expanding Fish Lead Free programs to reduce lead tackle use and loon lead poisoning;
• Launching a Look Out for Loons Program to reduce disturbance to nesting loons and loon mortality through education and outreach, as well as signage at highly disturbed nests.
The project engages teams of volunteers all over the state to help with many different education, outreach, and management activities. Now in its fifth and final year, project partners at Maine Audubon, Maine Lakes, Lakes Environmental Association, and the Penobscot Nation’s Department of Natural resources are hard at work to reach our restoration targets and also train local volunteers to carry on with nesting rafts and signs, loon pair surveys, tackle exchanges, and loon outreach programs next year and into the future.
Maine Audubon’s raft deployment team reports that the 2025 season began with a long string of rainy weekends, so a number of volunteers didn’t get their boats or docks in the water until much later than usual and some weren’t able to reach their camps. This caused some rafts to be delayed getting into the water. (With nesting beginning as early as mid-May, rafts are normally deployed by the first week of May). “On the flip side,” says Wildlife Technician Jayden Mowery, “rainy weekends may have shown to be beneficial for loons as the rain has kept disturbance down on the days where lakes are usually the busiest. With fewer boaters and kayakers out on the water, the loons experience less pressure from humans.”
Maine Audubon and its partners have strict criteria for placing rafts; they are only used in places where loon pairs have failed to hatch chicks for at least the last three to five years and the reasons for nest failure can be well-addressed by a platform that floats offshore. “There are some problems that a raft just can’t help with,” says Tracy, “such as deaths of chicks after they hatch. And in some cases, putting out an artificial nest can create more problems than it solves. They should only be used when necessary.”
As of mid-June, 96 rafts are in the water. In total, rafts have been deployed in 103 territories through this project, exceeding our goal of 99. For various reasons, seven rafts are no longer in the water. Some have been “retired”; rafts aren’t necessarily meant to be permanent fixtures; rather they are deployed to address certain issues. If those issues can be resolved or cease to exist, then hopefully loon pairs will resume nesting successfully on island and shoreline nests and a raft may no longer be needed. But on many lakes and ponds, the reasons for the raft might not be readily resolved (such as habitat loss or the presence of land predators), so the raft may continue to be necessary and remain in use as long as there are participants committed to managing and monitoring it. Life happens, though—so sometimes rafts can no longer be managed by someone locally and need to be responsibly retired.
So far this season, says Hart, 20 rafts are being used for nesting. One of them has been out for four years now without seeing any nesting on it. This year that changed and the pair is nesting on the raft! This isn’t necessarily unusual. According to Hart, “It takes on average three to six years for loons to start using nesting rafts after they are first deployed. So we try to keep rafts in the same place for several years without making changes. The lesson here is patience.” On the other hand, says Mowery, “This season we have two rafts that are being used the first year they were put out. Every lake and every pair of loons is different. You really never know what can happen.”
Last year, 21% of project rafts in Maine and nearby states were used for nesting. To meet that same use rate in 2025, we would expect to have 21 active nests on rafts. It’s still likely we will reach that level; it is by no means too late for additional pairs to start using rafts placed in their territories. With high waters in many places earlier in the season, some pairs seem to be delayed in their nesting. Also, if a loon nest fails early in the season, the pair may renest in a new location. Says Mowery, “In 2022, many of the nests on rafts were second nest attempts rather than first. As the season goes on and nests fail, we hope to see the loon pairs transition to the rafts for their second nesting attempts.”
And, of course, the best of all results: Chicks are starting to hatch! Seven have hatched from project rafts so far and several chicks have also hatched from natural nests in territories targeted with rafts. “We expect many more hatchlings in the coming weeks and through July. Some late nesters or those making second attempts after a failed nest may even hatch chicks in August. So it’s important to look out for loon families while boating this time of year and paddlers should give them plenty of space so as not to scare a loon off the nest,” says Hart.
Check back for updates later in the season!
