Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Gardner Birds 6/27 (Fitch BBA 1)

Common Loon and chick(stretching its leg) on Lake Wompanoag

Common Loons have nested on Lake Wompanoag (located in Gardner and Ashburnham) for the past 13 years. The nest sight is located, on a small island near the dam, on the Ashburnham side.

This morning an adult and newly hatched chick were just off shore where the lake "touches" Raymond Street (in Gardner), allowing me an excellent view. I did not see this adult's mate, but saw and heard a loon calling from Crystal lake, little more than a mile away. A week ago there was a pair on Crystal Lake, it would be doubtfull they were both the Wompanoag birds as I can't imagin they would leave the nest unattended. Unfortunately there are no islands on Crystal lake to provide a nesting sight for loon. Perhaps, this would make a good location for a nesting raft.

Also at Crystal Lake was a Cooper's Hawk crossing the lake, carrying prey, practically being ridden by an angry Eastern Kingbird.



2 comments:

Larry said...

That's a nice pic of the Loon.-I wonder if I just missed seeing that seen in Northern New Hampshire.-I saw the Loons but no babies.

Tom Pirro said...

Larry, they hacth in late June and early July....I would imagine they're a bit later near the Canadian border.