Restoring loons to Massachusetts
This summer marks the 3rd year of Restore the Call, an initiative spearheaded by the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) to study Common Loons and restore them to their former breeding ranges in New England. In partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, Maine Audubon, and New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Restore the Call relocates loon chicks from Maine and New York into the Assawompset Pond Complex in Lakeville, Massachusetts. Historically, loons nested on these waterbodies before the species was extirpated as a breeding bird in Massachuse
tts in the late 1800s. As a result of this project, chicks translocated to southeastern Massachusetts are expected to return to that region to breed as adults in 4–6 years, thereby establishing a new breeding population in the state.
Massachusetts is currently home to approximately 45 territorial pairs of loons with the majority nesting on Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs. Most of the other nesting loons are on waterbodies between the two reservoirs, and because loons are notoriously poor dispersers, it may take them decades or longer to recolonize the Assawompset Pond Complex. BRI and partners are hoping to jump start a population
in southeastern Massachusetts, an area that could see dozens of nesting loons in the future.Loons are brought from Maine and New York, where they have a robust population, and placed in pens at the new site for a time before release. In the pens (also known as hacking pens), the birds become acclimated to their new home but have limited contact with people while in the pens to ensure they don’t become dependent on people or associate them with food. Over the first two years of the project, 16 juvenile loons were translocated and released on the Assawompset Pond Complex. The goal this year is to bring in another 10 juvenile loons from Maine. So far this year, 3 juvenile loons have been translocated and placed in the hacking pens, and one of those birds has already been released onto the lake.
In an exciting development this summer, one of the translocated loon chicks from a prior year has recently been observed foraging on the release lake with two other juvenile loons. Sometimes juvenile loons return from wintering grounds to their natal lake or nearby lakes to socialize and feed as early as one year after fledging. “This is one of those cases,” says Lee Attix, BRI’s lead loon researcher in Massachusetts. “Although only one-year-old, this banded juvenile loon gives us confirmation that it has returned to the release lake versus the natal lake, and we hope it is the harbinger of a new breeding population for the area. In my 21 years of studying loons, this is the most significant finding.” The documentation that this bird has returned to the release area and is accompanied by other loons provides great hope that this species soon will be nesting again in southeastern Massachusetts, after an absence of over 115 years!
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