The Maine Loon Project

28th Annual Loon Count

The Maine Audubon Loon Count will take place on Saturday, July 16th, from 7 to 7:30 a.m. on lakes and ponds all across the state. If you are interested in participating in the count, please e-mail Susan Gallo, Loon Project Director, or call 781-2330 ext. 216. We'll need to know your mailing address and the lake where you'd like to count loons. No prior experience needed, just an ability to survey all or part of a lake with binoculars, either from shore or a boat. Deadline to sign up for the count is Wednesday July 13th.

2011 loon Productivity Study Provides New Information

While the Loon Count gives a half-hour snapshot of Maine’s loon population, Maine Audubon and about a hundred of its longtime volunteer counters undertook a more detailed study of loons this past summer, in an effort to determine whether nesting loons can successfully sustain their population from year to year. MORE

Loon Productivity Study Continues in 2011
What happens to the chicks we see on count day? Do they survive? Do they make it to adulthood? If they disappear, waht's the cause? If you are you interested in helping us answer these questions, please consider joining our 2011 Loon Productivity Survey. MORE

Common Loons in the Classroom

Maine Audubon has developed a new classroom curriculum for grades three through six focusing on loons and their lake environments. The curriculum covers six areas of loon ecology, from migration in the spring to nesting and raising young in the summer, with classroom activities that provide fun and exciting challenges for students to learn more about Maine loons. To learn more, visit the Common Loons in the Classroom home page. In addition to the written curriculum, which can be downloaded from the website, there are five boxes of supplemental materials (a stuffed and mounted loon, a loon wing, an egg, books, etc.) that can be checked out by community members starting this fall. Send an e-mail to Susan Gallo, project director, at sgallo@maineaudubon.org if you'd like to check out the "loon box" for your classroom or community.

Second Annual Loon Photo Contest A Success!

Thanks to the 22 photographers who submitted 76 amazing photos to our second annual loon photo contest, sponsored by Casco Bay Frames and Gallery. We sent them out to three wildlife photographers, who critiqued them for style and technical detail. We also invited the public to vote in an on-line "People's Choice" Award. You can see the winning photos and the names of the photographers here. Thank you all for participating! Note: We will unfortunately not be conducting a photo contest in 2011.

Healthy Loons=Healthy lakes:  2010 Loon Count review

Why do we care so much about common loons? True to their name, they are fairly common in Maine, nesting on many of our lakes in the summer, and spending the winter in the frigid waters off-shore. They are so much a part of our Maine outdoor heritage that we may forget how unique and special they are. After all, Maine is the only state in the northeast with such a robust and apparently healthy loon population. MORE

"Living in Loon Territory" Brochures available now.

This hugely popular brochure first published in 2003 has been reprinted thanks to the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund. MORE

About the Maine Loon Project

Why is it important to understand loons in our state, and how do we use the information we gather? MORE