Every summer, we spend a week on Big Gull Lake — north of Kaladar — where loons are an integral part of the lakescape.

They often surface ridiculously close to the dock while we’re having our early morning coffee. Later in the day, we often see a pair tending one or two chicks on the open water near a quiet bay. And most nights, their mournful, wolflike wails echo across the water, bringing a sense of peace and memories of summers past.

These same sights, sounds and feelings will also be familiar to most anyone who has spent time on lakes throughout the Kawarthas. But the loons’ reassuring presence can make it easy to assume that all is well.

A major new study published in the journal FACETS has found widespread declines in the number of chicks loons are raising. That is a troubling finding for anyone who hopes future generations will enjoy these birds as we have. 

Led by Birds Canada researchers Matthew Fuirst and Doug Tozer, who earned his PhD at Trent University, the study brought together 45,591 breeding records from 3,421 lakes in nine Canadian provinces and seven American states. The records spanned 1975 to 2023, although monitoring periods differed among regions. It was the largest analysis of its kind for the species.

In the study, “production” means the number of chicks per territorial pair that survive to six weeks of age — a measure of success beyond simply hatching eggs.

Across 10 of the 12 regions, chick production dropped by roughly 40 per cent on average over their respective monitoring periods. In Ontario, it declined by an estimated 45 per cent between 1981 and 2023. The steepest losses were in the Atlantic and Prairie provinces, where declines reached 74 and 65 per cent respectively between 1992 and 2023.

Tozer provided me with updated local figures extending to 2025 that show a similar pattern. In Peterborough County, chick production........

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