With a special Research Permit from Acadia NP, and the help of Billy Helprin, Director of the Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary (they run the MDI Loon Monitoring Project), we put out an Autonomous Recording Unit (ARU) to try to capture vocalizations of the Common Loon. It was placed about 50ft from a site where a pair of loons have nested for many years, and fingers crossed they will again this year. The ARU is set to record from sunset thru the early morning. With any luck, we expect to hear wails, tremolos, yodels, and hoots. And if we are really lucky we may even hear young “purring”. We’ll leave the ARU up until nesting at this site is over for the season. Fingers crossed.
The picture doesn’t show much purposely, as we don’t want to reveal the specific location of the ARU or nest site. But we are hopeful and excited to share any captured vocalizations later this summer!
We’ll also paddle out in kayaks in the Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sancutuary with our portable recorders and highly directional microphones a couple times this summer. But because Loons are sensitive to human disturbance, we think the ARU might be our best shot at recording this year. We’ll see!