Monday, April 11, 2022

Loons cry out

loons on a lake

When I was camping a couple of summers ago at Sampson Lake in West Canada Lake Wilderness, all was silent in the dark night but the unforgettable calls of a pair of a loons.

Even someone with a tin ear for bird calls knew what they were hearing. It felt as if it was just me and the loons on that lake – maybe in the entire world. Visitors and residents of the Adirondacks have experienced that feeling of connectedness since time immemorial.

But just like so many other things, a warming climate presents new threats to the iconic species. The Explorer’s new climate change reporter Cayte Bosler examined how climate change may threaten loons in the coming years. From “molt-migration mismatch” that makes loons vulnerable to getting iced-in to torrential rain increasing lake levels, conservationists are working to respond to a variety of risks.

My reporting took me to Split Rock Mountain Wild Forest last week. Photographer Mike Lynch and I hiked down to the shore of one of the area’s bays before going back to a ridge with incredible views of Lake Champlain and across to Vermont’s Green Mountains.

The views from high above the lake reminded me of hikes on rocky northern coastlines, looking down into deep green waters. I highly recommend it.

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Editor’s note: This first appeared in Zach’s weekly “Water Line” newsletter. Click here to sign up.

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Zachary Matson has been an environmental reporter for the Explorer since October 2021. He is focused on the many issues impacting water and the people, plants and wildlife that rely on it in the Adirondack Park. Zach worked at daily newspapers in Missouri, Arizona and New York for nearly a decade, most recently working as the education reporter for six years at the Daily Gazette in Schenectady.




2 Responses

  1. Fisherking says:

    Loons eat trout.

  2. Sean says:

    They are a guaranteed 2-2:30 am wake up call also (multiple experiences tell me this). No matter what day, week, month or year when they are in residency😆💀. Still completely and utterly worth it!!!

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