A tiny bird makes a big splash
The last time a common loon hatched in southern Massachusetts, there were only 37 states in the U.S.; Ulysses S. Grant was President; and there was no such thing as a telephone. Yeah, it’s been a while.
So imagine the excitement one charcoal ball-of-fluff bobbing between its protective parents near Fall River has caused among those who have been working to bring this bird back for years.
“Seeing the first loon chick in over a century in southern Massachusetts creates hope that, with persistence, other systems can be made whole again,” said David C. Evers, Ph.D., executive director and chief scientist for Biodiversity Research Institute.
Although remarkable, the chick’s appearance was no accident; it was born of years of effort by BRI to establish a breeding population of loons in this part of the state — work that will continue and expand thanks to funding from the Bouchard Barge 120 oil spill natural resource damage settlement.
Doing it their way
By the start of the 20th century, common loons were anything but in Massachusetts; although native to the state, they no longer nested there. According to BRI, the last successful breeding effort was in 1872. Human activities, primarily hunting, led to the population decline.
Then in 1975, a pair of breeding loons was found on the Quabbin Reservoir, in the middle of the state. Later, a pair nested on Wachusett Reservoir, a little to the east. Massachusetts is the only state where loons have returned of their own volition to reestablish a breeding population. There are about 45 pairs in 2020.
Just because they took the initiative, however, doesn’t mean they couldn’t use a little help.
A change of address
In the summer of 2015, BRI began a three-year pilot study with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to move loon chicks from Adirondack Park in New York to the Assawompsett Pond Complex (APC) in southeastern Massachusetts. That first year, the researchers successfully raised and released seven loon chicks.
In 2016, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife joined the effort, and BRI brought nine chicks from New York and Maine to the APC. The following year, eight chicks were moved from Maine to Massachusetts.
Because loons spend their first three years maturing along the coast, researchers had to wait until 2018 to see whether the chicks released the first year of the study would return to the southeastern Massachusetts waters from which they fledged.
As of Spring 2020, nine of the 24 loon chicks brought to the APC from Maine and New York had been seen in the area. That’s a return rate of more than 37 percent — similar to wild populations — and a promising sign.
One plus one makes three
One male chick (#4–2015) imported from New York in 2015 was seen on one of the lakes of the APC in 2018 and 2019. Early in the 2020 season, researchers noted a single female loon that was not part of the study on another one of the lakes. Then, on the last day of June, came the phone call.
A local resident spotted a couple of loons with a chick and alerted BRI. When staff arrived, they identified the father by the two large, colored bands on his right leg: a blue 4 and an orange 4. It was #4–2015. He had paired with the single female and together they made history.
A week later, a research crew carefully captured the family, took blood and feather samples from the parents to assess their health, and banded the mother before releasing them back to the lake. Local volunteers are now keeping an eye on the trio.
“It was a major milestone in loon conservation when this particular loon returned to its release lake three years after fledging,” said Evers. “In late June, we documented that this male mated and the pair produced a chick — visible evidence that breeding loon populations can be restored to their former habitat.”
Making amends
When the Bouchard Barge 120 struck rocks off the coast of Westport, Massachusetts, in 2003, it emptied nearly 100,000 gallons of fuel oil into Buzzards Bay. The spill killed roughly 530 common loons and more than 500 other birds — including common eiders, black scoters, red-throated loons, grebes, cormorants and gulls.
Under the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration program, federal and state natural resource trustees restore habitat and species injured by oil and hazardous substance spills, at no cost to taxpayers. In a 2017 settlement, Bouchard Transportation Company, Inc., and others paid more than $13 million to compensate for natural resource impacts of the 2003 spill. Of this, more than $8 million was set aside for restoration of common loons and other bird species affected by the event.
The Trustee Council has members from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, representing the U.S Department of the Interior; Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, representing the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs; Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management; and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
From disaster, opportunity
In June 2020, the Bouchard Barge 120 trustees released the Final Restoration Plan for Common Loon and Other Birds. It gave BRI $2.5 million to continue their loon translocation work in southeastern Massachusetts, as well as begin a similar effort in the western part of the state. Over the next six years, researchers will release at least 18 Maine-hatched chicks at the APC site, and 27 or more New York-hatched chicks in Berkshire County.
“We’re pleased to work with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and BRI to restore common loons to historic sites and to boost populations of birds at locations across New England,” said Tom Chapman, supervisor of the Service’s New England Field Office. “Not only will these projects restore birds affected by the 2003 oil spill, but they’ll ultimately help people connect with nature, perhaps by spotting loons on the water or hearing their iconic calls.”
Marking a milestone
For Evers, all this good news has been a long time coming.
“The idea of translocating, rearing and releasing loon chicks for restoring new breeding populations was novel when I proposed it 17 years ago,” he said. “Belief in that idea, coupled with years of additional research, created opportunities to test the concept.”
With the discovery of this tiny chick, one test is passed. And with additional funding, this novel approach may one day become…well, common.
