This spring, Eric Hanson of Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) placed a new nesting platform in the north end of the lake (off Hulbert Ctr property). Much of this spring, a pair was seen fishing and doing what loons do in this territory.
Eric visited in late May and observed them constructing a nest about 20ft from the platform.
Here are the latest observations:
When disturbed, loons signal their distress by steadily swimming away, flapping their wings, or calling in a loud wail. Harassment may cause adults to abandon the nest, leaving the eggs accessible to predators. Loons, and especially young loons, have limited capacity to repeatedly dive below the surface to avoid disturbances and boating harassment.
You can help in keeping “our” loons safe:
In support of providing strong stewardship of Lake Morey, we are highly encouraging the use of best practices on and around the lake. This includes programs such as Adopt-a-Lake and the Greeter programs which are aimed at invasive species mitigation.
Due to recent incidents, we would like to add to our best practices list the permanent removal and disuse of all seasonal polystyrene (petroleum based foam) docks and mats which fragment and litter our shorelines, fragile reed beds and marsh habitats.
Polystyrene is harmful to overall water quality, shoreline aesthetics, and to all fish and wildlife that unintentionally ingest it.
There are solutions and we can fix this problem on Lake Morey by removing all unencapsulated foam billets and large floating mats from our lake immediately (before another serious mishap occurs) and replace them with more eco-friendly alternatives. Hard polyethylene fully encapsulated floats can replace open (unencapsulated) foam billets. Likewise, large floating foam mats/pads also degrade and/or get gnawed by otters, muskrats and other critters and so should also be removed for the same reasons.