04/28/2026
WORLD’S OLDEST LOONS RETURN TO SENEY
On Saturday morning, April 25, a female loon on I Pool beheld a relatively frequent spring sight: two males battling, with beating wings and stabbings bills, for control of the breeding territory. The observer was Fe, who was first color-marked as an E Pool mother in 1990, and who will thus turn at least 40 this summer. The hostilities were brutal but brief, and after only a minute one of the combatants discerned that this was not his day, after which he shortly took flight for less perilous waters. With the challenger vanquished, Fe and the unbanded victor, who was likely but not certainly her mate from 2025, initiated a circling round of bill dipping and jerk diving, aspects of courtship involved in forming, or re-forming, a pair bond for the season.
Concurrently on nearby H Pool, Fe’s former partner of 25 years, ABJ, was engaged in scouting for potential nest sites with his current companion, Aye-Aye, with whom he bred unsuccessfully on H last year. Although ABJ, who will turn 39 this June, hatched a record 32 chicks with Fe, since their split in April 2022 he has failed to produce further offspring, and she remains the only mate with whom he has ever sired young. Along with the broader Seney loon population, which includes color-marked adults who are embarking upon their 24th, 27th and 33rd Refuge seasons, ABJ and Fe and their respective partners will spend the next few weeks engaged in territorial defense, habitat assessment, copulation and nest building ahead of 27-29 days of egg incubation that, with luck, will culminate in the emergence of one or two downy fluffballs in early-mid June.
Thanks to Dani Fegan for her extensive documentation of the migratory return of Seney loons.
Damon McCormick
Common Coast Research & Conservation
PHOTO: On April 25, Fe observes with alarmed but restrained interest as two male Common Loons battle to lay claim to Seney’s I Pool territory. Photos by Dani Fegan.
