Loons in Alton Bay?
 

This morning, my husband and I were awakened by what could only have been two loons calling back and forth to each other. We are on Echo Point, facing the Broads and Little Mark Island.

In all my (many) years of coming here, I had never heard a loon and had only seen them sporadically, here and there, but never really close to Echo Point. We saw one first thing when we arrived yesterday, just a few feet from our dock.

Is it possible that there could be a loon next nearby or was the sighting and the calling this morning just coincidence?

nj2nh

It is very likely that you have loons close by. I see and hear them often, early early in the morning at Lake Shore Park right around sunrise. The usual scenario is one Loon will call, the mate will call back. They will keep it up until they find each other.

What you most likely heard was a "locating" call that the loon experts call a "Wail". Loon sleep in the water and drift apart at night. The calls early in the morning are loons trying to find each other.

Here is an excellent site that plays the various Loon sounds and explains the meaning of the calls.

http://blog.syracuse.com/indepth/200...of_the_co.html

Sandy Point Loon
 

There has been a solitary, very large loon hanging around near Sandy Point all summer. Even with all the people in the area, I still hear him/her calling usually between 7 - 8 a.m. most mornings.

We spotted one fishing in Minge (sp?) Cove the other day.

I see loons all over the lake. We have two chicks in our area.

Please keep us posted on how those two are doing. We had two one year and after about 6 weeks one of them died. They say the strongest survive and I guess it is rare for two to survive. Keep our fingers crossed for these two!

We saw 3 or 4 today and heard a couple more. We had one pop up just a few feet from the bow. It stayed for a minute before it took off under water to pop up about 150 yards away.

We heard them again on Tuesday morning and saw them right in front of our house yesterday afternoon. Took lots of photos, but they were a little far away. We heard one again tonight, but I wasn't sure if the second one responded. Sometimes, it is hard to tell them apart. We saw three dark shapes in the water, but it was too dark to tell I'd they we're loons or ducks. I think they were ducks.

Unfortunately, we are leaving on Sunday so we won't know how they fared for the rest of the summer. Since they seem to hang out right in front of our house, I feel like they are ours!

Since 1996..
 

We moved to Alton Bay in 1996 and have enjoyed seeing a loon(s) every summer, anywhere from deep in the bay around the bandstand and as far out as Echo Pt and everywhere in between. Gotta love NH and the Lake:)!