# Kids build loons nest



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

KIDS BUILD LOON NESTS 
Tamar Charney, July 7, 2003
http://glrc.org./transcript.php3?story_id=1957

The haunting call of the Common Loon has become a symbol of wild northern lakes. But as homes, marinas, and resorts are built on these lakes, the loons are losing the places where they like to nest. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium's Tamar Charney reports, some people are hoping artificial nests might help:

The Common Loon doesn't move around well on land, so they like to nest as close to the water as possible. But this makes them vulnerable to being pushed out by development and washed out by boat wakes and floods.

Dan Truscott of Ducks Unlimited recently helped a group of elementary school kids uild floating nest platforms out of PVC pipes and Styrofoam for loons in northern Michigan. Truscott got started making artificial nesting platforms after he saw what happened to a pair of loons on a lake near his home.

"They had nested and we had a large rainfall and the dam couldn't keep up with the water so the nests got washed out, and so I went home and built one and put it out and it worked." Loon protection groups in the Northeast and the Great Lakes regions promote the use of these platforms as one tool to help improve the breeding success of the birds.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I'm Tamar Charney.


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

it's Bill Truscott...the article, one of several, ran in the TC Record Eagle, I've mentioned this several times on that other MI, message board, he posts there as well under the name "duckaholic"...I hope that you'll see a consolidation of the stories I ran in a future issue of Woods N Water News.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Linda, Do you know if Bill is using the loon nest platform as described in the MN Woodworking for Wildlife, p.66?


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

but it's the standard platform that MLPA has used in the last few years, with a few modifications from a duck hunter's point of view...pvc pipe, 4 inch I think, GLUED together for waterproofness, tyvek styrofoam sheets, two of them, placed inside the frame, secured by wrapping the entire structure with lots of chicken wire, covered with Fast Grass.....so far, two of the platforms have produced, one was commandeered by mute swans, who hatched out 5 cygnets, one produced two baby loon chicks that are now over 5 weeks old and doing great, and the other we're still waiting on...that's what our Loon Watch was all about this weekend. It's a miracle that the platforms have held up to the beating the third one took this weekend from the wakes of boats passing by way too close, but it did. As of last night, she was still setting high and dry, expected to hatch this week...

Although the platform program has been very successful for the most part, there are issues with it, like the mute swans that commandeered the one platform. You don't want to encourage the populations of exotic species like this, which have been known to attack and drive out more reclusive species like loons, no matter how beautiful swans are. And you can't just run out there and put platforms out-as Bill found out. There are permits required from the DNR and from the Public Waterways Commission.


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