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Dear Caroline,
Life as a Loon Preservation Committee field biologist can land you in some strange situations. LPC’s North Country biologist, Jack Fogarty, found himself in a rocky stream late one night this summer with a net in his hands and a flashlight between his knees trying to find and rescue a seven-week old loon chick that had been washed over the dam on Pontook Reservoir. It wasn’t his first attempt to save this loon, but he persisted in his seemingly hopeless task because he was determined not to let the plaintively wailing chick spend another night alone. Neither the loon nor Jack were alone for long: the chick was reunited with its parents by the end of that night, and every one of LPC’s field biologists had a loon rescue story of their own before the summer was over.
Our rescue work started early this year, with 10 loons in January who were unable to fly from the last small pool of open water on Winnipesaukee captured and safely released to the ocean. We have rescued a record 36 loons this year to date – and there will be more before the year is done. Those rescues are perhaps the most dramatic part of LPC’s work to recover our threatened loon population, but they are just the tip of the iceberg: LPC broke records across the board this year in its groundbreaking management and outreach to ensure a good year for New Hampshire’s loons.
Hope, Emily Dickinson wrote, is the thing with feathers. That hope is LPC’s business, and we foster it through sound science, respect for loons and for people, and the earnest application of care and lessons learned to ensure a bright future for loons. Our LPC members and friends have helped sustain that work in the past. I hope you will support our good work in the coming year with a year-end gift to LPC. I promise that we will put it to good use to help these birds that we love. Thank you for your care for loons, and I wish you and your family a peaceful and joyful Holiday Season.
Yours sincerely,
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