Injured Loon

[DRH]

We discovered yesterday a loon that had been floating near our shoreline for over 24 hours is injured. It has a fishing lure imbedded in its mouth and fishing line is wrapped around it's lower bill. It appeared to be lethargic and unable to dive.

Another neighbor and I contacted the Loon Preservation Committee (LPC) to report the loon, and I took a photo that showed the imbedded hook in the loon's mouth and emailed it to LPC.

About an hour later an LPC loon biologist and a helper arrived by boat to try to net the loon so the hook could be removed. Unfortunately, although the loon had appeared lethargic before their arrival and had not been diving, it was still able to dive and it eluded capture when they tried to net it.

The loon has not returned to our area. If anyone spots a loon in the West Alton area that appears to not be acting "normal", please use binoculars or a spotting scope and see if you can spot a fishing lure embedded in the loon's mouth that is visible on the left side of its face. If so, please contact the Loon Preservation Committee at 603-476-5666 and report your sighting. They would like to attempt another capture of this loon to remove the hook from its mouth.

Here are three photos:

[pjard]

Originally Posted by DRH

We discovered yesterday a loon that had been floating near our shoreline for over 24 hours is injured. It has a fishing lure imbedded in its mouth and fishing line is wrapped around it's lower bill. It appeared to be lethargic and unable to dive.

Another neighbor and I contacted the Loon Preservation Committee (LPC) to report the loon, and I took a photo that showed the imbedded hook in the loon's mouth and emailed it to LPC.

About an hour later an LPC loon biologist and a helper arrived by boat to try to net the loon so the hook could be removed. Unfortunately, although the loon had appeared lethargic before their arrival and had not been diving, it was still able to dive and it eluded capture when they tried to net it.

The loon has not returned to our area. If anyone spots a loon in the West Alton area that appears to not be acting "normal", please use binoculars or a spotting scope and see if you can spot a fishing lure embedded in the loon's mouth that is visible on the left side of its face. If so, please contact the Loon Preservation Committee at 603-476-5666 and report your sighting. They would like to attempt another capture of this loon to remove the hook from its mouth.

Here are three photos:

Where exactly in West Alton? Thanks for posting this.

[DRH]

Originally Posted by pjard

Where exactly in West Alton? Thanks for posting this.

Yesterday the loon was between the West Alton sandbar and Minge Cove.