This morning (June 5) a friend of VCE’s seasonal loon assistant, Angela Apicelli, came across a loon sitting at the edge of the road in Walden, VT. Angela received the phone call who then called me and we were both on the scene within 25 minutes. Luckily we were home today. The loon likely tried landing on a nearby pond from which it could not fly and was now off looking for bigger water, or it just made a mistake and/or was tired and landed in a nearby field. The leg on this bird was only 20 mm in diameter compared to the normal Vermont Loon of 22-26 mm, thus we could not put color bands on it. It makes me think that this could either be a very late migrant heading to Quebec or a very small female. Despite being smaller, this was one of the feistiest loons I’ve handle so I’m glad that it seemed healthy and we could release it on nearby Caspian Lake in Greensboro.
Another well done job we are seeing a pair here on Lake Carmi and three others either by their selves or all three together. A lot of yodeling and calling going on here.
Nice save Eric!