Common Loon News

News from my friends and colleagues at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies reveals that a pair of Common Loons in Vermont hatched a chick by June 3. This is the earliest date VCE’s loon biologist, Eric Hanson, has noted in his 13 years working on these birds in Vermont. VCE also reports in its spring issue of Field Notes that satellite telemetry, combined with observations and recoveries of banded loons, shows most Common Loons are wintering farther north than expected. Biologists had believed most eastern North American loons migrated to southeastern Atlantic waters, with smaller numbers remaining off the coast of New England and Long Island. Most loons equipped with satellite transmitters in northern New Hampshire and Maine overwintered between Maine and Cape Cod, generally staying along a 10-30 mile section of the coast within one and six miles of shore. My photograph here came from Kettle Pond in Marshfield, Vermont, on July 30, 2005.