A common loon and chick on Contoocook Lake in Jaffrey. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript 
A loon parent feeds its chick. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript 
A loon parent feeds its chick. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript 
A loon parent feeds its chick. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript 
A loon chick sticks closely to its mother. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript 
Loon parents with a new chick on Contoocook Lake. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript 
Loon parents with a new chick on Contoocook Lake. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript 
Loon parents with a new chick on Contoocook Lake. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript 
Loon parents dive for small fish to feed their chick. Credit: ASHLEY SAARI / Ledger-Transcript
A mated pair of common loons on Contoocook Lake have welcomed a new baby chick.
The family has been spotted with the chick, only a few weeks old, traveling together as they fish for minnows. Currently, the chick is sporting the light brown, downy plumage of a young chick, but it will be fully fledged within three months.
Common loons are considered threatened in New Hampshire. One of the leading causes of loon deaths since the late 1980s has been lead poisoning from loons ingesting fishing tackle, which can kill a loon within a matter of weeks. The Loon Preservation Committee has been conducting autopsies on deceased loons since 1989 and has found that lead poisoning has accounted for 36% of documented loon deaths in New Hampshire, the largest known cause of adult loon mortality there.
The population can be slow to recover, in part because loons do not have prolific breeding seasons — they hatch only one or two chicks at a time and may not breed every year. Not all nestings are successful because of where loons build their nests, namely on the shoreline, where they are vulnerable to being flooded.
According to the Loon Preservation Committee, loons initiate nesting between late May and late June, though nesting can happen slightly outside of that window. Loons, because of their body shape, cannot easily walk and spend almost their entire lives on the water, building their nests on lake edges, islands, marsh hummocks, sedge mats or floating bogs.
This can lead to nests being swamped during rain events, and a reduction in habitat as shorelines are developed.
As part of a conservation effort, the Loon Preservation Committee has a program to provide floating nest platforms that rise and fall with water level changes and provide a place to nest away from shoreline predators that might eat the eggs before they have a chance to hatch. The platforms have an arched roof to help protect the nests from avian predators such as eagles.
About a quarter of all loon chicks born in New Hampshire today are hatched on these floating rafts.