Loon’s inhabit an unpredictable natural world. Black flies swarm them early in the year, often making incubation impossible. Coyotes, fishers, eagles, and raccoons ambush them on nests and take eggs — and sometimes loons themselves. Eagles swoop by unexpectedly to grab a chick that strays.

It seems unfair to add humans to the mix. Yet humans pose by far the greatest danger to loon survival and reproductive success. High summer brings a surge of anthropogenic challenges: some mild, some severe. Boaters unwittingly push loon families out of their favored foraging locations. Jetskis elicit yodels and tremolos from loon parents fearful for their chicks. Inattentive — and occasionally malicious — boaters deal a deadly wing or neck blow to an adult loon or chick. Anglers hook loons and cut fishing lines. Of course, we now understand that indirect impacts on northern lakes — especially loss of water clarity — pose the greatest threat of all to loons.

Some human impacts on loons are difficult to fathom. The July 4th holiday celebrations — always feared by loon enthusiasts and researchers — affected loon families on Roy Lake, Minnesota, in a manner that we had not seen before. We knew that surges in boating, fishing, and general hijinks would force loons to spend much of the holiday ducking, dodging, and diving. But we did not anticipate that fireworks and boats might scramble up loon families.

The precise events are difficult to discern. Here — according to Sheila Johnston and folks on Roy who watch the two breeding pairs closely — is what we know. On July 2nd, the Roy-South loon pair had two huge chicks. That night, many boats criss-crossed the waters of Roy-South to watch the Grandview Lodge — a large resort on Roy — shoot off a massive fireworks display. The following day one of the two chicks from Roy-South was missing. On the same day, the Roy-North breeding pair, which had two medium-sized chicks on July 2nd, suddenly had three: their own two and a much larger one. The only plausible explanation for these events is that one of the two Roy-South chicks became disoriented by the boisterous flotilla during the previous night, blundered into the North pair, and unwittingly abandoned its own family to join a new one. (Sheila Johnston took a photo that shows the “monster chick” from the south end next to one of the smaller chicks from Roy-North.)

There is good news. The adoptee has been fully accepted by the Roy-North pair and its two smaller step-siblings. All three young are being fed by the parents. So what could have been a human-induced disaster became a sweet story of a loon family willing to accept an unrelated chick that had lost its way. Loon lovers can, in this case, breathe a sigh of relief.