I have a report from Evelyn and Ray Richer regarding the loon situation:

Sorry for the delay... we have been pretty tied up lately... but soon to come to an end (sort of)... anyhow, as far as the loons are concerned; we did not detect any injury to 'our family' of loons. They seem to be fine, and grouping together. We would be concerned if one of them was estranged from the others... the separation (within the family grouping) would be a possible sign of injury... just like the year that our female was beached to die from fish-line entanglement. After she was freed from the fish-line, she stayed away from the family for the rest of the season.

Ray said that he was on our dock one night, watching the loons, when a skier came by and he said from his vantage point he 'swore' the loon was hit. But as he watched, (quite a while later) the loon was visible again, and was just fine. If you ever saw these guys swim underwater, you would be amazed at their speed and dexterity... Although we need to keep an eye out for the loons while boating, they are amazingly good at 'ducking'...

I am not suggesting that a loon did not get hit, as it was witnessed by someone, only that our family of loons at this end of the pond are fine.

The one apparently caught in the skiing incident was not a member of the family. If there is an injured loon on the pond, keep an eye out along

the shorelines of your camps to see if one has beached itself. If you

discover one in distress on land, call Eric Hanson, or you certainly can

call Ray.

Thanks for watching over our loons...

Blessings, Evelyn and Ray

We are relieved that it wasn't one of our loon family involved, and hope the one that was involved only got a good scare - as probably the people in the boat did. I'm sure nobody wants to injure the loons, but with as many on our pond as we've had reported this year, it isn't surprising this close call happened. I guess all we can do is caution boaters to keep a sharp eye out for the birds and expect the unexpected when they are around. As Evelyn said, they are expert divers and swim surprisingly long distances under water, so it makes it difficult to tell where or when they might pop up. I'm sure they don't understand the danger of speeding boats and could easily come up in the path of a ski boat much the same as a deer can jump into the road in the path of a car.

If further news comes along, I'll post it here, but it seems all has ended well. Do keep a sharp eye out in case there was an injury and therefore the loon could be on the shore needing assistance.