Written by Nancy Hanger
In 2006, a loon laid an egg on Damons’ dock. Too much rain had eliminated the few places available for nesting. Damons called Bill and me, and the floating nest began with helpful supplies from the Muziks and the Plates.
Bill and I were fortunate to have such a great view of the nest. We saw them mate on the nest (they can only do so on solid ground). We saw an egg being laid. We watched them sit through pouring rain and being attacked by black flies. We watched them take turns sitting on the nest or calling for the other mate when it was late for its shift (you can’t tell them apart).
We watched them get low in the water when folks would get too close. (I, the evil witch, would yell at the encroachers.) When there were two chicks, we watched the chicks fight for dominance even before they left the nest. The adults fought an eagle in the water to protect a chick.
Some years there were two chicks; some years one, and some years none. There were unfertilized eggs. There was an egg cracked open by a raven. An egg was accidentally kicked into the water, followed by a plaintive call from the adult. One June was so cold and rainy that neither egg hatched. It is stressful to have eagles in the trees above you and the snapping turtle lounging on the rock not far away. Loons will look for a new site if they have had low success, which ours have had these past few years. He has tried to persuade her to get into the nest. He has done it often. She just swims by.
Lucky for us, there will be new loon tenders next year. My daughter and her husband, Lisa and Scott Fraley, have helped me put in the nest these past few years. It was their last act on the pond before they moved to Arizona. The new “nesters” are Leah and Walker Roberts, with help from Mary Martin and Peter Sevcik. The nest will be down closer to the dam.
The loon is the first bird in the bird books. The Call of the Loon is one of the most iconic. When I first came to McWain Pond in 1967, there weren’t any loons. Getting rid of DDT and lead sinkers has brought them back. In these past seventeen years, seventeen chicks have fledged from the nest. That’s a good thing.
