After Bryce Montgomery reported to us this morning he'd seen two adult loons with two very small chicks, I let Evelyn and Ray Richer know. I had an e-mail from Evelyn this evening:

Hi  Jane...

Ray just came back from checking out the new family of loons and indeed
there are two new chicks hatched the 15th and 16th of June.  These are
West Danville's first confirmed chicks!! These guys are little, so they
need to be watched out for while boating, give them lots of space...
they do tend to stick close to the shore... They have a totally new type
of environment down there and it's a busy area...

The Cabot chick is a couple of weeks old now and getting very big... he
is doing just fine...

Both families have now been reported to the Eric Hanson (loon biologist)
just waiting for a word back from him...

The total loon population in Vermont has been growing, and the nesting
loons are running out of natural habitat in which to nest, so they are
adapting... Eric said in previous years loons had nested on the shoreline
between two camps right out in the open... who knows, nothing is
impossible!

Happy Father's Day!!  Evelyn (and Ray)

Then I had the following from Nancy Buttura:

Just to let you know that my husband Fella and son-in-law Nick saw 11 loons this morning in front of our camp. Later while on a boat ride in the small pond they saw two adult loons and two babies.

Thank you, Nancy. That was some flock of loons!

When we were at camp, a group of five went by and seemed to be hanging out around the lower end of the pond towards Barre Avenue. I guess Joe's Pond is becoming a choice summer resort for loons! They don't seem to be very shy around people, so as Evelyn said, give them space - especially the families with chicks - we don't want any accidents.

With so many around, they are becoming less of an oddity so perhaps people won't be as inclined to stalk them as in previous years when we were more likely to hear them than see them.

If we hear more from Evelyn or from Eric Hansen, you'll find it here. In the meantime, Fred has posted "thumbnail" photos on both the Cottages for Sale and the For Rent pages to make it faster loading for people with dial-up. He'll be updating the Ice-Out pages soon with a copy of the 2011 ticket and the on-line ticket page. It will be interesting to see who is our first on-line ticket customer. Tickets for the 2010 contest will be available at Hastings and Joe's Pond Country Store next week. Don't worry, your eyes are alright - they are white this year! Click to make the image larger.