The Annual Maine Audubon Loon Count was today. The loon count takes place for 1/2 hour between 7 am and 7:30 am on the third Saturday of July. On this day people all over the state hit their lakes in kayaks, canoes, and motor boats to count the number of Loons on the water. This year only 1 loon was seen on Clary Lake though 3 to 4 adults have been seen from time to time this spring. Needless to say, there are no nesting loons or baby loons this year. Mary and Ernie Shaw have been doing the loon count for quite a few years now. Mary will be giving a full report at the upcoming Annual Meeting.

Usually Mary and Ernie have their 16′ boat in the water, and they can usually be seen most pleasant evenings taking a slow and leisurely sunset cruise around the lake but this year there wasn’t enough water at the State boat ramp for them to launch their boat. For that matter there isn’t enough water on their shoreline for them to put in their dock either, so to conduct today’s loon count they asked me to take them around in my 14′ boat. During the loon count I managed to find a new rock on the north side of the lake off the point at the end of Duncan Road, in an area that I thought was plenty deep enough, and free of hazards. I was wrong. There are 2 buoys off the point marking shallow water ledges, and I had given them what I thought was a sufficiently wide berth. Fortunately I was not going too fast and my motor was not locked down so no serious damage was done, but my propeller got bent. I will have to pull it and file and reshape it before heading out again.