8334-R3_ML&P_LSLA_2023_SummerNewsletter_Web

2023 Little

Spring is in the air and Loon Season will be upon us before we know it. I’d like to first fill you in on the highlights of the 2022 season and then tell you about some 2023 season goals and objectives. Just in case anybody missed us – here’s a picture of the 2022 auction winners of the “Loon Launch & Learn Tour”. We enjoyed a three hour tour viewing nests, chicks, and adult loons. Our winners had a lifelong history on Little Sebago and enjoyed learning more about the Loons we all love.

In 2022, nine of 11 known loon territories on Little Sebago Lake were occupied by loon pairs. Eight of the nine pairs nested (89%). Five successful pairs hatched eight chicks, and four survived to fledge (>6 weeks of age). Overall productivity on Little Sebago Lake in 2022 was 0.44 fledged young per territorial pair. This matches our 5-year average. The established sustainable population threshold stands at .48. Little Sebago’s five year average is close enough to that rate to not raise any alarm bells. If I may steal a phrase from our Consulting Biologist – “It was a wild and crazy year for loons last summer”, both here on Little Sebago and on other lakes with similar monitoring programs. Little Sebago suffered five mortalities in our loon population in 2022. Three of the five were loons previously banded on Little Sebago. One was killed by an intruding adult loon, three appeared to be suffering other health issues and are pending necropsy. One of those three did have an x-ray post mortem and is suspected to have died from lead poisoning from ingesting a lead sinker. The fifth was one of our chicks that had fledged and was attacked and killed last fall by what is suspected to be an eagle attack (kill site and carcass were examined and preserved). In addition to the fatalities our Loon Rangers and others observed an extraordinary amount of “wild & crazy” aggressions between loons. Due to concerns about the frequency and impacts of intrusions and aggression into occupied territories by unpaired loons (floaters), LSLA Loon Rangers began to record these events in 2022. In this first data collection year there were at least 60 documented cases of territorial intrusions. Aggression varied from none (no contact) to severe (fights). Fights were mostly, if not entirely, in territories where chicks were being reared, with recorded instances of both adult and chick

Captain Sharon & The Connolly Rangers with Auction Winners

Prior to 2022, 27 loons had been banded on Little Sebago Lake (24 adults, and three chicks). Surveys conducted in 2022 identified 17 different returning banded loons (63%). This matched the results from 2021. A return rate over 60% is very good. Eleven of these banded loons occupied a territory, compared to 12 in 2021. Of the 17 banded loons identified, six occupied the same territory where they were originally banded (35%), and five others occupied different territories. Nest Fidelity (same pair - same nest territory) is typically a strong indicator of reproductive success. Little Sebago seems to be somewhat lacking in nest fidelity. (More about this in a moment).

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