Icons of the Wild: Twitchell Lake Loons
Written by Noel Sherry
Longtime Adirondack denizen and writer, the Reverend Noel Sherry is a supporter of Adirondack Wilderness Advocates’s mission to preserve and protect wild places. He has a log cabin on Twitchell Lake near Big Moose. Twitchell Lake sits on a small private parcel surrounded on three sides by the Pigeon Lake Wilderness. It is one of the highest-elevation lakes in the Adirondacks and plays an important ecological role in the western Adirondacks. As a member of the Twitchell Lake History Committee, Noel has been active in documenting Twitchell Lake’s stories, available on their website. Here, he contributes a vignette on Loon hatchlings with whom his family had a close encounter.
One of the results of clean water at Twitchell Lake has been the hosting of Loon pairs, watching them nest on the lake, hatch loonlets or chicks, and teach their young how to fish, dive, and fly.
And, of course, listening to their haunting calls, morning, noon, and night!
In recent years we have counted up to two nests on the lake, with the launching of two to four chicks each summer.
Two generations. Photo by Noel Sherry.
Several summers ago, we at the Sherry camp had the privilege (and responsibility) of having a loon nest on the tiny islet formed by a fallen tree just off our shore. This nesting spot was located right in front of our camp, affording great closeup pictures. And it was not more than 40 feet from our busy dock, which led to some tense confrontations. Although it is important to state that the birds adjusted to their human neighbors quite well.
Our family dogs kept their distance from the high-strung birds. But at one point Rocky, a boxer, stood on the front corner of the dock watching a swimming loon, when its partner suddenly emerged right in front of him with a terrifying splash and a blood-curdling shriek. Rocky retreated at high speed, never to return to the dock that summer.
The ultimate "confrontation" occurred about 27 days after the two eggs were laid, loon incubation being typically 26 to 31 days. Sherry grandkids were up with their parents. One parent, Katrina, awoke to a soft squeaking sound and walked out the front door to investigate.
Unbeknownst to her, two of the young children had preceded her, right to the shore, and in one horrifying moment, the parent loon launched her babies into the lake and jumped in behind them. For Katrina it was a moment she feared, the Sherrys becoming known as the family which caused two baby loons to drown.
She lived with that fear for hours, until news came from lake friends that two adult loons were swimming up the lake with two babies on their backs.
Having a loon nest so close was indeed a great responsibility, which we took seriously, in spite of a few confrontations.
But happily, the Sherry nest launched two loons that summer, the other nest up the lake adding two more, a record for Twitchell Lake.