Loon Update, Backyard Birds and dealing with Cyanobacteria
2025, No. 11 — September 3rd
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Loon Update
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Loon activity has calmed down a bit on the lake and Piper and her parents are spending more time together. Most of the calls you hear now are “where are you” wail calls and occasional alarm calls for Eagles and people approaching to close.
Piper has been diving a lot with her parents and beginning to exercise her wings. She is now in full juvenile plumage.
She is probably catching and eating a few fish, but still relies on her parents to bring food. The encounter below was especially pleasing to watch. She was being brought lots of Yellow Perch! The perch population has been very low since the lake drawdowns but seems to be coming back.
Yellow Perch are not the only fish being brought. Here’s Mom popping up very close to Jon on her way to deliver what looks like a very young pickerel.
Meanwhile, Piper is spending a lot of time looking cute.
And of course, pestering her parents for food — Mom in this case.
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Backyard Birds
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Our backyard has had a lot of bird activity over the last couple of weeks. Fledged young and those still being tended are fun to watch. Below is a sample.
Our amazing Turkey hen still has all 9 of her chicks with her.
Here is one of them showing its new set of feathers.
American Robins have been fledging all around the lake. The two below are about to leave the nest.
Some of the fledglings are still fed by parents, but many are starting to forage for themselves.
House Wren Chick
Young Eastern Phoebe
Young Chestnut-sided Warbler showing off it’s breast feather
Young Red-eyed Vireo
Yyoung Northern Parula
Young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird with first red throat feather
Many of us enjoy providing food at feeders for birds. However, if you really want to attract breeding birds, they will need more than sugar water and seeds. Even the Hummingbird above was fed spiders and small insects by its parents in addition to nectar.
Some young birds have wide-ranging diets, like this young Crow eating blueberries.
Most, however, still require insects and know where to find them. Trees and shrubs that have partially eaten leaves mean there are caterpillars around. The Chestnut-sided Warbler below is looking.
The young Northern Parula below has found one. A yard with trees that caterpillars like can attract a lot of breeding birds. For example, Pin and Black Cherry will provide both caterpillars and berries. If you are interested in attracting birds and other important wildlife to your yard, there is no better place to look for ideas than the Homegrown National Park website.
Having a yard with native plants that support breeding birds also attracts other birds during migration. Here are a few that have visited on their way south.
Black Throated Green Warblers nest in northern mixed conifer forest so having some Hemlocks and Spruce in your yard gives them a familiar place to forage.
This Magnolia Warbler is a rare visitor to our yard.
So is this Canada Warbler.
A new yard bird for Jen, this young Nashville Warbler stopped by.
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Protecting the Lake we Love
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All of us on the lake and in its watershed, as well as those who come here to fish, boat, or swim, have shared responsibility for helping ensure the future quality of Pleasant Lake for ourselves and those who follow us.
The recent Colby Sawyer study has identified key areas where nutrients and other chemicals are entering the lake at levels not good for its well-being. The last few summers have brought us Cyanobacteria blooms. While localized so far, they serve as a very serious warning that there is an increasing threat to Pleasant Lake that we must, as a community, react quickly to. Other lake associations in the area are seeing the same threats and beginning to interact with each other in seeking best practices to help deal with it.
Last week the PLPA sponsered a very sobering presentation by Doug Darling from nearby Tucker Pond. That pond has suffered serious Cyanobacteria blooms over a number of years and the residents of the lake are fighting back, as a community, to deal with it. We feel many more people living on and around Pleasant Lake should have a chance to learn how Cyanobacteria can affect a lake and its property values, and how a community can take action to reduce its threat. Here is a link to the Protect Tucker Pond website that contains very useful information. Dr. Darling gave the PLPA permission to record the talk and make it available. That is in progrees and a link to it will soon be announced.
Bye for now … Jen and Jon
Text and Photographs by Jen Esten and Jon Waage
