The fall season is in full swing! Here in New Hampshire the trees are well into the process of losing their leaves, and our lakes are rapidly losing their loons. Because they need open water in order to forage, New Hampshire's lakes are not suitable habitat for loons during the winter. Our loons must migrate to the open ocean and spend their winters there.
New England loons winter on the Atlantic, spending their time off of the coast ranging from the Gulf of Maine all the way down to Long Island Sound.
By this time of the year, loons have molted out of their beautiful breeding plumage and have grown their more neutral-colored winter plumage. If you happen to spend some time at the coast between now and April, be sure to keep an eye out for loons like the one pictured below!
|
|
An adult common loon enjoys a meal while wintering off the coast of Maine. Photo courtesy of Kittie Wilson.
|
|
Some might think that since the loons are gone, this is a time during which things slow down at LPC. That is not the case! Although summer is our busiest season in terms of being out on on the lakes doing surveys and putting out nest rafts and signs, the rest of the year is equally busy in other ways! I’d like to use this newsletter to let you know about all of the important (but less immediately visible) work that we do during the fall and winter.
One of our biggest fall tasks is putting together LPC's Fall Newsletter. We feel that is very important to share the information that we have gathered over the course of the breeding season with the public. Every fall, several of our staff members are tasked with writing newsletter articles, and once we're done we pass them on to Special Assistant/Newsletter Coordinator Linda Johnson. Linda is responsible for designing the newsletter, and she is truly amazing! Among many other things, Linda suggests article topics, keeps everyone on track with regards to meeting article deadlines (not an easy task!), proofreads everything multiple times, finds the perfect photos and other visuals to accompany each article, and makes everything fit together and look nice. If you are an LPC member, keep an eye out-you should be receiving the fall newsletter in the mail within the next few weeks! Once it has been published, this edition of the newsletter will be uploaded to our website. In the meantime, you can catch up on past newsletters
here
.
|
|
LPC's Summer 2018 Newsletter. Fall 2018 edition coming soon!
|
|
When not working on writing newsletter articles, LPC biologists have been busy analyzing the data that we collected during the summer. Over the course of the breeding season, our field staff conducted a cumulative total of over 2,000 surveys! One of our major fall tasks is to review each survey. During this process, Senior Biologist John Cooley performs rigorous quality control on the data. Among many other things, John checks to make sure that we have enough evidence to support listed causes of nest failure, that we have properly documented every banded loon that was resighted, that all of our recorded nest coordinates are in the right spot, and that our biological collection database is accurate and up to date.
Once the data has been reviewed, we use it to generate final site reports for each territory that was surveyed. As you can imagine, this is quite the task! After individual territory reports are generated, John can begin analyzing the data and compiling it into a statewide report on the status and reproductive success of New Hampshire’s loons. In addition to data review, John has also been diligently working on several studies, including a report on the impacts of climate change on loon reproductive success in New Hampshire.
|
|
Although his task is Herculean, John isn’t the only LPC biologist hard at work! Since the breeding season ended, Squam Lake Project Biologist Tiffany Grade has continued her research on contaminants found in loon eggs. This year, LPC had enough funding to test 4 loon eggs from Squam Lake and 5 additional eggs from other lakes throughout the state. These eggs will be tested for a suite of contaminants, and the results will be used in a future study to assess the impacts of these contaminants on loon health and reproductive success. A preliminary summary of Tiffany’s past contaminant work can be found in this year’s Squam Lake Loon Initiative Progress Report, located
here
.
|
|
Tiffany had quite a selection of eggs to choose from! Every year, LPC collects somewhere between 40 and 80 failed loon eggs from around the state. In 2018, we collected 60. Luckily there are specific criteria for selecting eggs to be tested, which helped her narrow things down!
|
|
On November 8th, both John and Tiffany reported on the preliminary findings of their analyses at the meeting of the Technical Committee of LPC’s Board of Directors. Topics discussed included updates regarding the status of the loon population statewide, the Squam Lake Loon Initiative, and LPC’s climate change study.
|
|
Squam Project Biologist Tiffany Grade presents updates on the Squam Lake Loon Initiative during the meeting of LPC's Technical Committee.
|
|
Fall is also one of the busiest times of year for our Development Team and Center Staff. Development/Membership Coordinator Lin O’Bara, Membership and Loon Center Assistant Holly Heath, and Center Manager Kellee Duckworth have been working hard to prepare for our annual Holiday Open House. A lot goes into the planning of this event-securing food donations, arranging horse-drawn wagon rides and a visit from Santa, creating gift bags for kids, and coming up with fun arts and crafts ideas are just a few of the many tasks that they have been working on.
|
|
The Holiday Open House is shaping up to be a great event, and it’s coming up soon! Be sure to mark your calendars-the Open House will take place on Saturday November 24th from 10 am-2 pm. For more information, click
here
. During the Holiday Open House, the winners of the 2018 LPC Benefit Raffle will be announced. Tickets can be purchased up until the time of drawing, so if you haven’t entered yet it isn’t too late! Click
here
to view the raffle prizes and purchase tickets. Tickets can also be purchased in person at LPC or by phone at (603)476-5666. All proceeds from the raffle are used to support LPC’s mission of preserving loons and their habitats in New Hampshire.
|
|
Santa always finds time to come to the open house!
|
|
LPC is excited to welcome 2017 North Country biologist Emily Landry back to our staff as a Project Biologist! Since leaving our field crew, Emily has graduated from the University of New Hampshire and has served as an AmeriCorps member at the Squam Lakes Conservation Society in Holderness, NH. Emily will be working with us on several projects, including a study of loon eggshell thickness. Emily will also be helping us to evaluate our lead tackle buyback program.
|
|
You may recall that this past summer, LPC partnered with New Hampshire Fish and Game as well as two tackle shops (AJ's Bait and Tackle in Meredith and The Tackle Shack in Newbury) for a pilot program geared at removing illegal lead sinkers and jigs from circulation. This program provided a $10 voucher to any angler who traded in one ounce or more of illegal lead tackle. While we know that over 20 pounds of lead tackle were collected, Emily will be working to provide a more in-depth summary-How many individuals turned in tackle? How many pieces of tackle were traded in, and what sizes were they? Her work will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and improve it for the future.
|
|
Project Biologist Emily Landry gathers data on lead fishing tackle collected from the lead tackle buyback Initiative.
|
|
Senior Biologist/Executive Director Harry Vogel has been keeping very busy this fall as well! Harry works closely with LPC's Board of Directors to secure continued funding for our monitoring, research, management, and outreach activities; however, that's not all that he does! In addition to this work, Harry has been giving presentations about loon biology and the work of LPC throughout the state (most recently to second and third grade classes in Jackson, NH!). In addition to this, he's also been working closely with our partner members of New Hampshire’s Fish Lead Free coalition to plan for next year's lead tackle buyback initiative and is preparing to put together a proposal to apply for remediation funding from the 2003 B-120 oil spill.
For those unfamiliar, the spill occurred in 2003 when the Tank Barge Boucher No. 120 ran into rocks and spilled roughly 98,000 gallons of oil into Buzzards Bay. Over 200 common loons were killed as a result of the incident. At least two oil-covered loons were later spotted on breeding territories in New Hampshire. Given this, as well as our winter band resight data, it seems that New Hampshire loons were most certainly affected by the spill. We are hoping to receive some of the remediation funding to work on projects that help to restore loons both to New Hampshire's breeding lakes and to their wintering grounds in the Atlantic.
|
|
Documented wintering locations of banded New Hampshire loons
|
|
In addition to everything else, Harry oversees the rest of the staff to ensure that we are effectively carrying out our mission to r
estore and maintain a healthy population of loons throughout New Hampshire, to monitor the health and productivity of loon populations as sentinels of environmental quality, and to promote a greater understanding of loons and the larger natural world.
|
|
I hope this has given you an idea of the work that we continue to do for the loons, even when they have left New Hampshire!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we hope to see you at the Holiday Open House!
Best,
Caroline
Caroline Hughes
Volunteer/Outreach Coordinator
Loon Preservation Committee
|
|
Have a loon lover in your life? LPC's store has lots of loon-themed products that make great holiday gifts! Check out our inventory
here!
|
|
If you can't find what you're looking for in the online store, our staff can be reached at (603)476-5666 and are happy to assist!
|
|
November 15; 7 pm
November 24; 10 am - 2 pm
|
|
Photo courtesy of Brian Reilly
|
|
Loon Preservation Committee | 603-476-LOON (5666) | www.loon.org
Loon Center Hours: Open Thursday through Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm
|
|
The Loon Preservation Committee is dedicated to restoring and maintaining a healthy population of loons throughout New Hampshire; monitoring the health and productivity of loon populations as sentinels of environmental quality; and promoting a greater understanding of loons and the natural world.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
