Adding new rope and swivel hooks onto a loon sign buoy. Photo by Eric Hanson.
It was a banner year for Common Loons breeding in Vermont. Volunteers helped us monitor 93 nesting pairs around the state, a record number since monitoring began four decades ago. Sixty-five pairs successfully hatched 98 chicks, and 80 of these young survived through August. Only one failed nest resulted from human disturbance, a tribute to the education and on-the-ground management that we do. The Canaday Family Charitable Trust and many individual donors provided funding support for over 160 new nest warning signs that were distributed throughout the state in 2015 and 2016. We couldn’t do this work without the help of over 280 volunteers and our longtime partner, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped VCE conserve loons! Learn more about our loon conservation work and how you can join us on the VCE web site.
Since its inception more than 30 years ago, the Vermont Loon Conservation Project has produced dramatic results. Loon pair numbers continue to increase. We’re watching surviving chick numbers to determine whether we’re seeing a leveling off or some sort of trend. (We had no loon data for 1980.)
