Somes Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary
(opens in a new tab)The Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary is dedicated to conservation, research, and education in the Somes Pond-Long Pond watershed and beyond
As is typically the case, yesterday morning the Echo Lake South and North resident loon pairs were not the only adult loons on the lake. Ray Yeager watched the aggressive interactions amongst the residents and two visitors and monitored the two ELS chick's responses. At one point, when the chicks saw one visitor and their parents coming closer to the east shore they dove under water and disappeared – good survival action! They have an awareness of the danger posed by adult loons that are not their parents.An adult bald eagle also flew in and landed in a tree not far from the loons. The ELS parents were more concerned with the visiting loon than the eagle and did not do their usual eagle alert wail. The chicks seemed to be paying attention to the eagle and that is most important – to not be surprised by a swoop down at them so that they can dive underwater to escape. The eagle yesterday was fairly close but did not divebomb the loons. The chicks have reached the 8 week old mark, and are developing nicely. One of them is noticeably larger than the other and I suspect that one may be a male and the smaller a female. The larger one is a little further along in losing its downy plumage. Both are on their way to achieving sleek juvenile contour feathers on their backs, with light crescent shapes at the distal ends, and dense, smooth feathers on their head and neck. Over the next few weeks their primary and secondary wing feathers will be coming in, getting longer, and once they are in place, they'll be ready for some early flight practice. It will be interesting to see when each chick is ready to try to fly and when they decide to leave their natal lake, graduating from chick to juvenile.
Another summer of significant drought conditions.Comparison photos from the Somesville Mill Pond this past week at low tide and April of this year.Tidal ocean water comes up near the bottom of the dam at high tide, but there is no fresh water coming from Somes Pond via Somes Brook and the Mill Pond. This means juvenile alewife will not be able to emigrate to the ocean for a while. Similar to last year, we had two pulses of 1.0 – 1.5 inch outbound juveniles in early July, but no others were able to exit until late October. It will take a whole lot of rain to resume flow once again.
Here are a few images that Sanctuary volunteer Ray Yeager was able to get through the fog from yesterday morning at Upper Hadlock Pond on Mt. Desert Island, where the 11 week old chick did a good job staying out of view in the vegetation along the roadside while its parents had a long bout of trying to get rid of a persistent intruding loon. Just a few weeks ago the chick had a too close encounter with a loon interested in checking out the territory when neither of the resident adults (chick's parents) were present on the pond. The intruding loon attacked the chick but it was able to get away (you can scroll back on the Page to find the short video clip of the attack).. Loons intent on obtaining a territory have to displace a current resident to take over, unless there is a vacancy due to a resident not returning after the winter, one of the pair dies from numerous possible causes, or expanding into perhaps a suboptimal, unoccupied territory. There haven't been any vacancies on Mt. Desert Island Lakes this summer, so the pressure has been intense, with lots of territorial fighting. A challenging loon may try to kill the chick of a resident pair to help break up the pair bond and work their way in. Most loons have a rough life, but they're not alone in that. The UH chick has been a tough survivor so far.
