[NatureNS] Loon platform success so far

To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
References: <481D2008-0935-4759-8E46-7C70A8D766ED@gmail.com>
From: Donna Crossland <dcrossland@eastlink.ca>
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2019 09:44:09 -0300
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <naturens-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/Environment/FNSN/MList; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects

member the platform was not used successfully but I did see them checking i
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------83837EC035417CBA564E0A0A
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

It's nice to read additional loon observations.  Loons remain an 
indicator of lake and fish population health, so observations of a loon 
pair with offspring is reassuring in this period of rapid change.  This 
species has been nesting on our lakes since the lakes began to hold 
fish.  That being said, I wonder if anyone has observations of their 
population responses to invasive fish.  The invasion of chain pickerel 
in lake systems is a sobering game changer.  I have read a paper that 
concluded that loons can respond positively to invasion of small mouth 
bass, taking advantage of high bass numbers, but I am not so sure they 
will thrive under a chain pickerel invasion.  Stories of chain pickerel 
consuming loon chicks are sobering.  Fishermen recount some horror 
stories from investigating the stomach contents of chain pickerel; they 
eat nearly anything.

Loons were late nesting last year on a number of lakes, presumably from 
unusually high waters.  It will be interesting to learn of final 
outcomes by summer's end.

Kevin's observations between eagles and loons is a concern, having heard 
many reports in recent years of loon chicks preyed upon by a growing 
population of eagles.  As we know, young loons are flightless on their 
natal lakes until autumn, and so they are of limited capacity to thwart 
continual attempts at predation by resident eagles, exhausted from 
diving to escape the eagles, they finally succumb despite some 
protection from the parent loons. Just this week, I heard from a lady 
who said that whenever she and her husband heard their resident loons 
vocalize loud distress calls, they would immediately respond by paddling 
their canoe into the lake.  The loon pair would apparently swim closer 
to the canoe and stay near them until the eagle stopped hunting.  Loons 
are smart and they have very individual personalities, so perhaps they 
really had made an association with this canoe as 'safety'.  One can 
imagine the dilemma of loon parents, particularly if raising a chick on 
a small lake with few places to hide, their options are limited for 
protecting the chick when eagles decide to nest nearby.  The resident 
eagles know the chick is there and it is a question of time before it 
succeeds at predation.

All of this would be a more easily accepted part of nature if not for 
the ~350-400 food-supplemented eagles residing around large industrial 
farm operations each winter in the Annapolis Valley that presumably is 
the source of increased eagle numbers nesting near Nova Scotia's many 
inland lakes.  This unnatural population stems directly from human 
activity that has upset the natural balance.  Apparently a growing 
number of incidences of eagle predation on loons and herons, and likely 
other species, is also becoming a problem in the US, as recently 
recounted to me by Dr M. Hunter.  I haven't had time to read about this 
further, but it is concerning.  PEI has similar reports of growing eagle 
populations causing issues, possibly from our NS food-supplemented 
eagles. (This would be interesting research.)

The solution seems simple enough, send dead animals from industrial farm 
ops to the local rendering plant, rather than throwing them in fields to 
feed raptors.  Consider holding the popular 'eagle watch' tourism events 
with ~ 40 birds instead of 400.  Forty eagles in one small area is 
impressive.  Four hundred eagles is a sign of something gone wrong, and 
people should be aware of potential impacts to other species.  Tourism 
that is marketed toward the haunting call of the loon and only an 
occasional soaring eagle seems the best approach.

Balance; a lofty goal for all.

Donna Crossland

On 2019-07-21 2:07 p.m., Kevin Lantz wrote:
>
> There was a late nesting last year on one of the lakes near Lunenburg 
> (possibly a second attempt) Incubation started on July first and the 
> nest produced one chick first seen on July 29^th and last seen in mid 
> October when it seemed to be feeding entirely on it’s own.
>
> This year incubation started on May 18^th , 2 young were produced but 
> I haven’t seen any Loons on the lake since June 26. At that time only 
> one chick was left and an eagle was making low passes over the lake to 
> wailing complaints from the adult Loon.
>
> What I have noticed is that eagle sightings at the lake seem to drop 
> off in early July, possibly because their young have fledged. Whatever 
> the reason the decreased eagle presence through summer and fall seemed 
> to help last year. It was the only success the loons have had since 
> the eagles took up residence.
>
> Kevin Lantz
>
> Front Centre
>
> *From: *Donna Crossland <mailto:dcrossland@eastlink.ca>
> *Sent: *July 21, 2019 11:30 AM
> *To: *naturens@chebucto.ns.ca <mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
> *Subject: *Re: [NatureNS] Loon platform success so far
>
> Hi Nancy:  Your update on the loon platform is of interest.  I believe
>
> it may be only the 2nd occurrence of a loon nesting platform being
>
> occupied by loons in NS.  It's interesting that the Canada Goose 'broke
>
> it in' a bit.  Maybe that helped instill confidence.  MTRI has had a
>
> project of producing loon platforms, but so far occupancy has been
>
> limited to just one lake.   I'd be interested to see a photo of the loon
>
> platform on Lake Torment.  I can wait until the loon is off the nest to
>
> see the 'setup', in case you are out with camera in hand, Nancy.
>
> Of additional interest is the late nesting of loons.  That is also my
>
> impression of what may be occurring with some of the loon population in
>
> Kejimkujik this year.  High waters may have delayed exposure of nest
>
> sites on several lakes.  It will be interesting to follow the
>
> survivorship of potentially late-hatching loon chicks.
>
> Thanks for the update.
>
> Donna Crossland
>
> On 2019-07-17 11:11 a.m., nancy dowd wrote:
>
> > A person on L Torment, E Dalhousie, Kings Co, decided to install a 
> floating Loon nesting platform he got from DNR this year. The latter 
> suggested he install it near the island where they’ve nested in the 
> past and so he did. This “island” only emerges if the water is low 
> enough. This year the water levels here are quite high so it is still 
> underwater. The platform went in in May and Canada Geese promptly 
> occupied it and raised a family. Once they were gone the Loons did 
> seem to notice it, probably because they were looking for their usual 
> nesting site. I hear that a Loon has been on the platform full time 
> for