Iced-in loons rescued from Lake Winnipesaukee
Jan. 27—A team of biologists from the Loon Preservation Committee (LPC) rescued 10 loons that had become stranded in a small patch of open water on Lake Winnipesaukee last weekend.
The loons were discovered by Nordic skaters, who found them while enjoying time on the icy lake.
Loons have dense, heavy bones and require a 'runway' of up to a quarter of a mile of open water to take off, the LPC said in a news release.
As Lake Winnipesaukee froze over and ice closed in around them, the loons lost their opportunity to leave and became stranded.
LPC Senior Biologist/Executive Director Harry Vogel said that without intervention, the loons would have been forced up onto the ice as the hole froze over — where they could have starved or become easy prey for eagles or other predators.
Biologists first tried to capture the loons on Jan. 21, assisted by members of the Tuftonboro Fire Department and New Hampshire Fish and Game. However, the loons still had enough open water to evade capture at that time.
Cold temperatures that night shrank the opening in the ice, confining the loons to a smaller patch of water, and on Jan. 22 the team used a combination of gill nets and long-handled landing nets to capture all 10 loons.
The biologists found that the loons were molting their flight feathers, which prevented them from taking off, the LPC reports.
Vogel speculated the warm early winter weather which kept many lakes ice-free longer than normal may have delayed the loons' migration to the ocean.
"When the cold snap finally happened and the ice began to close in on them, it caught them in the middle of their wing feather molt and they were unable to leave," Vogel said.
Once captured, the loons were examined to check their lead levels and overall health as well as for any internal injuries.
Prior to releasing the loons on the ocean on Jan. 24, LPC biologists gave all 10 loons a unique color combination of leg bands. The bands will help biologists to track the loons in the future if they return to New Hampshire's lakes.
"We couldn't have hoped for a better outcome," said Vogel. "This is the largest number of loons that LPC, or any loon organization, has ever rescued in a single incident outside of an oil spill. It was a monumental, and ultimately successful, team effort to rescue, treat, and release all ten of these birds."
