Banding our Male Loon
2025, No. 06 — June 29th
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Banding our Male Loon
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As you can see in the lead photo, our Papa Loon is sporting new bands!
His four new bands are: Yellow with a black stripe over Orange on the left leg. Silver (federal band) over Green with a white dot on the right leg.
Banding our Loons provides us with definitive identification of our birds. We don’t know how old our male Loon is (he would have to be at least 6 or 7 to have mated last year), but we will now know it’s him when he returns to Pleasant Lake in future years. Our mother Loon was banded as a chick in 2001, so we know she is 24 years old and what a beautiful bird she is! The current record for longevity in New Hampshire is over 30 years.
Last Monday night a team of biologists came from Loon Preservation Committee to do the banding. Capture and banding is performed at night. The team goes out in a boat with a bright spotlight. The light prevents the Loons from seeing the boat as it approaches. The Loon is brought to shore to be banded and evaluated.
In the photo below (thanks to Charlene Baxter). Caroline Hughes (right), Biologist and Outreach Coordinator, is applying a band while Ashley Keenan (left), Field Program Coordinator, holds Papa.
Below, Doug Baxter, president of PLPA, is holding a light for Caroline while she takes a blood sample. Blood tests will help reveal the health of the Loon and the presence of any toxins he may have been exposed to on the lake. They also take two feathers. The Loon’s summer plumage comes in before they arrive at Pleasant Lake, so anything they learn from these samples will be indicative of the environment on the ocean.
Loons are big, powerful birds! Males are up to 25% larger than females, and in NH can weigh up to 15 lbs. While Ashley is holding the Loon securely, Josh Worwa, our 2025 Sunapee Region Summer intern biologist, holds his head wrapped in a towel to help keep him calm.
Piper was with Papa when the team went out to catch him. They catch the chicks when they do banding in order to be sure they are not separated from their parents. Piper was weighed during the process and found to be rather small for her age. We still don’t know the sex of the chick, but we will refer to Piper as female. Considering her small size, we might be right!
Jen had the great pleasure of holding Piper for a while during her father’s banding. Piper wasn’t as happy about it as Jen was, but everything went well in the end.
Photo below by Charlene Baxter
Below, Caroline Hughes makes sure all of the information was collected before Papa and Piper were taken back out to the lake for release.
Once released, the team waited for the family to be reunited before leaving.
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Back on the Lake
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Piper is still being plied with minnows
And takes them when she’s got room.
Piper, stretching her tiny wings.
Piper is still very small and hard to see on the water when her parents are diving to catch fish. Please watch out for her.
Bye for now … Jen and Jon
Text and Photographs by Jen Esten and Jon Waage
