Loon chick numbers up, adult numbers down

AUGUSTA – Maine Audubon says its 2007 Maine Loon Count recorded the highest number of loon chicks since the count started in 1983, but the number of adult loons counted was down again.

Results from the chick tally contrasted sharply with 2006, when the count revealed the lowest number of chicks on record, the organization said Monday.

“The results were a pleasant surprise,” Maine Audubon biologist Susan Gallo, who coordinates the count, said in a statement. “2006 was definitely a tough year for breeding loons, so we were a little nervous going into the 2007 count. It was great to see the numbers of young bounce back.”

The count of adult loons was down for the second year in a row, a 6 percent decline from a year earlier, while chick numbers jumped nearly 200 percent from 2006, the organization said.

Maine Audubon biologists estimated southern Maine’s loon population at 2,432 adults and 422 chicks.

Maine Audubon also coordinates a loon productivity survey and for its second annual study there were 28 volunteers monitoring 35 loon pairs on 22 lakes through the summer.

The organization said a larger sample size would be needed to yield more conclusive findings, but that results in 2007 showed a higher productivity rate than what is thought to be the Northeast average.

“Maine has the largest loon population in New England, but we know very little about how many chicks survive each year. We know a little bit for small regions or individual lakes, but no comprehensive statewide productivity estimates have ever been made. In the coming years we hope our survey will shed some light as to how well chicks fare in Maine,” Gallo said.