LEBANON — A loon, icebound in the Connecticut River just above Wilder Dam following last week’s cold snap, broke free after three days of confinement sometime after Tuesday evening.
Loons, listed as a threatened species in New Hampshire, need a “runway” of enough open water to takeoff, and when rivers and lakes flash freeze as the Connecticut did last week, they can become stuck.
A pack of devoted birdwatchers monitored the loon each day from the river bank.
By Monday, Chris Rimmer, retired executive director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies in Hartford, noted that the bird was diving for food in a patch of open water not at all large enough to mount a takeoff from. Or that’s what he had thought at the time
On Wednesday morning, when Rimmer returned to check in, the loon was nowhere to be found.
“I’m hopeful and optimistic that it made it out of there,” Rimmer said. The bird might have gotten a final push from the eagles that make their home along the Connecticut. “The loon said, ‘I gotta get out of here; I’m somebody’s meal.’ ”
It’s no small feat that the loon was able to break free.
“This is pretty exciting to know that they can get just that amount of lift in a short period of time,” said Eric Hanson, loon biologist for the nonprofit Vermont Center for Ecostudies. “A goose can just take a few steps and be airborne. But with these guys, you often think of them needing a few hundred meters of open water beneath them.”
Still, not all of them make it.
Hanson had returned yesterday from collecting a loon that had perished in a frozen pond in Calais, Vt.
When conditions allow rescuers to walk out on ice, biologists and bird enthusiasts across Northern New England have mounted rescue efforts to retrieve the birds before they meet a similar fate.
Loon populations across New England are growing each year, with a record 109 nesting pairs noted in Vermont after the 2021 annual loon survey. But that rebound is in part due to management measures, like protecting the birds’ nests in the warmer months and recovering them from frozen waters in the winter.
Expecting more quick freezes like last week’s, Hanson is investing in additional ice gear and rescue courses.
“That way I can get out on slightly thinner ice,” Hanson said.
Frances Mize is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at fmize@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.