After the black fly debacle in recent weeks, we were all ready for some good news. Indeed, most territorial pairs had shaken off the flies and gotten back to the business of reproduction. Good tidings seemed the order of the day. Yesterday, Al Schwoegler of West Horsehead Lake called with a thrilling and unexpected report: the eggs laid by the pair, which they had left unattended for many long hours on several days because of the torment of black flies, had begun to hatch! At first neither Al nor I could believe that the eggs were viable. As Al described the behavior of the female on the nest — who has reared a whopping 19 chicks to fledging since 1996, when she was first banded — we gradually let ourselves believe that the impossible had occurred.

But our positive feelings were dashed suddenly by the cruel realities of loon territorial behavior. You see, the last few weeks at West Horsehead have been marked by frequent territorial intrusion. At the very time that the pair was trying to recover from the onslaught of biting insects, the male owner was facing repeated challenges for his position. Finally, by yesterday, both Al and Sally Yannuzzi of my team confirmed that male ownership had passed from the 14 year-old male hatched on Alva Lake who had resided on the lake for most of the past decade to a 9 year-old upstart from Harrison Lake in Lincoln County. The new male, confident in his new position, spent much of the morning resting and foraging near the nest, while the female patiently sat on the eggs. Finally, the female slid off of the nest into the water, revealing a newly hatched chick and second egg, which was on the brink of hatching. Alas, the new male behaved as animals typically do when confronted with helpless young that are not their genetic offspring: he quickly pecked the chick to death as its mother looked on helplessly. The celebration of an unexpected hatch gave way to a wake for a young loon doomed by territorial usurpation. Al took this photo of the female, still mildly protective of her nest containing the dead and unhatched chicks. (Shortly after the photo was taken, the female left the nest to forage with her new mate, with whom she might still renest.) Sorry for the unpleasant photo and description. But there is a valuable lesson here. Loons, like lions and langurs and mice and water bugs, behave so as to promote their own reproduction. Despite the ugliness of this episode, we can hardly hold it against the 9 year-old that he is looking to produce his own biological offspring — before a new usurper comes along and shows him the exit.