Recently a viewer commented on the website that one of our baby loons seemed to be missing.  Evelyn and Ray Richer have been aware of that and this morning I had this message from Evelyn:

Good morning Jane!

Wanted to pass along some info... On Sunday morning we sighted an eagle circling over the pond and worried about the safety of our chicks... but didn't see anything happen ... so we went on to church. At church we heard that an eagle had just swooped down and grabbed the Harvey's Lake chick that very morning... so when we got home we checked the family again, and sure enough one of our chicks was missing... It would seem that the eagle may have taken it...

Just this morning, however, I heard back from Eric Hanson about the Harvey's Lake chick, and it seems that 'somehow, the Harvey's Lake chick has survived'... So that being the good news, our chick is still missing.

We have gotten numerous calls about the absent chick and wanted everyone to know that we do realize it is gone, and that we believe it was the eagle that took it... It's the circle of life... and that part of it we don't particularly like... I am betting that most of us wish the eagle would have had a red squirrel for breakfast on Sunday instead.

This all brings to mind that due to the many annual calls that we get about the loons, and what would appear to be a loon 'in distress' (had one just last week) it might be a good idea for Ray to have one of his loon shows here on Joe's... Most of the calls actually are due to watching the loon preening... this past week someone called saying they saw the 'father loon' with a stick/arrow in its wing with a flag on it... When I heard this I began to realize folks need to see Ray's show... what they were no doubt seeing is the preening process and the loon's leg sticking up while preening. The large foot looks just like a flag on the end of a stick (from a distance).  I did however, go out to view that family on the second pond and watched for two things:  #1:  Is the 'distressed loon' separated from the family (it would do that in most cases if injured); #2: Is the 'injured' loon diving?  After watching the family
for just a few minutes I could see that BOTH adult loons were diving, so the 'injured' loon would still be able to feed itself... (if indeed it was injured).

I know there are more than the usual number of events going on for Joe's Pond folks this summer - seems like every weekend is busy and some activities continuing into the week days, but if you would be interested in seeing Ray Richer's loon video show to learn more about our loon families and their habits, please let me know and perhaps we can arrange for that to happen. Comment here, or send me an e-mail: janebrown@fairpoint.net.