Paddlers reunite loon family

Photo: Clara Bass

REUNITED — The family of loons, just a day after they were reunited with their wayward chick with the help of Chris Bass and Matt Baillargeon.

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NORWAY — "The next day we thought it was a dream," says Chris Bass. "It was so unreal."

She's referring to her recent experience reuniting a family of loons with their newly-hatched chick on Lake Pennesseewassee.

Bass says she was on an evening kayak with family-friend Matt Baillargeon when they noticed the eggs in a loon nest they had been watching for weeks were gone.

Not only that, Baillargeon noticed a small black puff-ball of a loon chick sheltering near the shoreline – and it noticed him.

What came next was a total shock – the loon chick started following Baillargeon.

"We tried to paddle away, but everywhere we paddled, it followed him," Bass recounts.

She is convinced that Baillargeon was the first living thing the chick had ever seen and it immediately imprinted on him.

Baillargeon says he tried to gently lift the chick back on the nest with his paddle multiple times, but it kept on returning to him.

The two could see the adult loons, so they both started slowly paddling towards them, the chick in tow.

When it grew tired and started to lag, Baillargeon helped it onto the deck of his kayak for a ride.

Despite the surreality of the episode, the two were worried for the chick – without its parents, Bass says, it would have died.

"We did not think we'd be able to reunite the family," says Baillargeon.  "Every time I got close, the loons would go further and further."

Bass says the two adults were trying to protect their other chick – neither she or Baillargeon thought they would ever get the family back together.

Luckily, the loons proved them wrong.

The loons were about a quarter-mile away when the baby started chirping, Bass recalls – the adults immediately stopped, focused on the chick and responded with their own calls.

At that point, Bass remembers, Baillargeon got as close as he could to the adults, but the angle of his kayak obscured the chick from his view – the adults could hear it, but couldn't see it.

After getting as close as he could, Baillargeon quickly moved away from the baby, Bass says. As soon as he did, the adults sped in to recover their chick, who gratefully climbed onto one of their backs, and the four quickly swam away.

"It gave us all goosebumps," says Baillargeon. "It was a really amazing experience." 

Bass says she was initially hesitant to tell the story because people don't like it when other people mess with nature, she says.

The fact that she and Baillargeon were able to reunite the loons convinced her that the story should be told.

Baillargeon says he has kept tabs on the family and all four seem to be doing well. He reports witnessing one of the parents feeding the two chicks last week.

Days after, Bass was still feeling the euphoria of the experience.

"It was just like a gift, that we were chosen to be part of this," she says. 

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HITCHING A RIDE — Matt Baillargeon helps out a newly-hatched loon chick reunite with its parents. Baillargeon says he saw the the chick at its nest while kayaking on Lake Pennesseewassee and it started following him, despite his best efforts to disuade it. The two paddlers were eventually able to reunite the chick with its parents.