Somes Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary
The Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary is dedicated to conservation, research, and education in the Somes Pond-Long Pond watershed and beyond
What a beautiful morning for our walk at Ship Harbor today - cooler, dry, less smoky, northerly air for a change! We didn't do very well in the shorebird migration department but we were lucky to still hear a hermit thrush singing (most have stopped with the end of breeding season); we saw some guillemots, a lone loon, a female redstart flaring her tail, male black-throated green warbler foraging on a branch tip, a spotted sandpiper flitting along the shore beneath us, parula warbler singing (late as well), female purple finch on the top of a spruce, golden-crowned kinglet and brown creeper call notes, a couple of common terns scouting the water, as was an osprey high above.
We had a great group of people along and as we made our way back lots of other human visitors were arriving. The parking lot and roadsides were packed. Good timing and morning for us.
Thanks to the group from the Appalachian Mountain Club camp at Echo Lake for visiting the Sanctuary this morning to talk about loons, fish migration, the Sanctuary mission and other projects; and to walk the trails. The Somes Pond resident male loon and 2 month old chick had good timing and showed up not far off the deck. The chick did a good job demonstrating what food begging looks and sounds like - ahh, that poor father, very patient.
Yesterday, the 48 day old Upper Hadlock chick was focused on what most loon chicks are: getting fed. Sanctuary Volunteer Ray Yeager was able to get some beautiful photos of the efforts by the solo parent on duty and the insistent chick yesterday morning. The chick is in its transition plumage phase with brown down being replaced by feathers. At almost 7 weeks of age, it still has another 4-5 weeks or so before it has all feathers in place and more developed flight muscles - prerequisites to be able to leave its natal pond. Trial runs on the water while flapping will likely start to happen in weeks 10 and 11.
We currently have 5 chicks still surviving out of 8 eggs hatched on Mt. Desert Island: this one on UH, 2 at Little Long Pond, 1 at Echo Lake South, and the oldest MDI chick on Somes Pond. Not a bad success rate so far.
