Have you ever thought about the fish you are catching—or eating? And wondered what that fish had been eating? Soft plastic fishing lures are a popular and common tackle used extensively across Maine. These lures imitate worms, frogs, and other natural baits by moving more freely through the water …
loons
Boosting Fish Lead Free efforts this winter
Winter is the perfect time to clean out your tackle box of any unwanted or illegal lead tackle. You might start by cleaning out the illegal tackle: Maine bans the use and sale of lead sinkers and unpainted lead jig heads weighing 1 ounce or less and measuring 2.5 inches long or less. But since this …
Maine Audubon’s 2022 Loon Count Brings in New Lakes, Counters!
Final results from Maine Audubon’s Annual Loon Count for 2022 estimate that adult loon numbers dipped slightly this year but chick numbers are up! Long-term trends continue to show a strong adult population that has grown steadily over the years, and a stable population of chicks over time. The …
Commonly Misidentified Species: Diving Birds
COMMONLY MISIDENTIFIED SPECIES: It’s not always easy to identify Maine’s most beloved birds. Maine Audubon biologists and naturalists commonly field identification questions along the lines of “is it this, or that?”. Many species look similar from a distance, but there are some great telltale signs, …
Ten Questions for Our Seasonal Loon Biologists
What’s it like to work with loons in the field? For the spring and summer of 2022, two seasonal biologists, Earl Johnson and Jill Marianacci, have been working with Maine Audubon on the Loon Restoration Project, doing everything from building artificial nests for loons that struggle to hatch chicks, …
Guest blog post: Passing the Loon Count baton
My loon-count crew was ready with time to spare, fortified with Fruit Loops and cranberry juice (I know it’s a sugar bomb, but hey, we’re grandparents). I spread the map on the console of the boat, shoved off from the dock, and headed out to do my part for loon science on sector 3 of China …
Annual loon count scheduled for July 16
Did you know that loon chicks can swim right away but need parental care for their first three months? That the shape of a loon’s forehead or length of its neck can change to indicate stress? And that Maine is fortunate to be home to the largest Common Loon population in the Northeast? For nearly …
The 2021 Annual Loon Count is in the books!
Once again, as they have every year since 1983, volunteers across Maine set their alarm clocks early, gulped down some coffee, and were out on lakes by 7 a.m. to record observations about Common Loons in the Annual Loon Count. For half an hour, more than a thousand volunteers were paddling kayaks, …
It’s Mayhem: Maine Audubon is busting out all over
In the same way that blossoms started to unfurl and migratory birds began to appear, so too did restless Maine Audubon staffers, tentative at first, and then all at once in a glorious riot of activity. May was the busiest month we’ve seen in ages, in terms of our interaction with the public. …