{"id":194442,"date":"2025-12-20T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T07:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/194442\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T07:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T07:00:10","slug":"residents-see-black-speck-on-frozen-lake-and-realize-an-animal-is-trapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/194442\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents See Black Speck On Frozen Lake And Realize An Animal Is Trapped"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early December, residents living on Big Diamond Pond in New Hampshire noticed a tiny, black speck floating in a small patch of water. The rest of the pond had frozen over, trapping whomever it was in the cold.<\/p>\n

The residents quickly recognized the speck as a loon.<\/p>\n

Loon Preservation Committee<\/p>\n

Earlier in the year, a loon family hatched a chick on the pond. All summer and fall, locals watched the juvenile grow up. As winter moved in, loons in New Hampshire began migrating south.<\/p>\n

But for some reason, the young bird didn\u2019t make it out before a cold snap hit the area. The loon, who needs a few hundred yards of open water to take flight, was iced in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no hope for the loon if it truly gets stuck and isn’t able to take off,\u201d John Cooley, a senior biologist with the Loon Preservation Committee<\/a>, told The Dodo. \u201cOnce the open water is reduced to, say, ten feet or so, the loon just cannot get airborne from dry land.\u201d<\/p>\n

A loon struggling to take off while sitting in snow. | Getty Images\/John Morrison<\/p>\n

Loons are fantastic swimmers and divers, but \u201cthey’re completely hopeless on land,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cThey can’t walk on land and they can’t take off from dry land.\u201d<\/p>\n

The locals called Cooley and his team, who showed up on the shoreline with a small, flat-bottomed boat and dry suits, which they wear during ice rescues to keep them safe if they fall through.<\/p>\n

Loon Preservation Committee<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a long time to get out to the loon because I kept breaking through the ice,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cIt was really thin, but you know, [you] just have to climb back in the [boat] and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loon Preservation Committee<\/p>\n

When Cooley finally reached the loon, he used a large net to scoop the bird into the boat. The loon wasn\u2019t eager to get near a human and tried his best to escape on his own.<\/p>\n

Cooley\u2019s even seen loons dive under the ice during rescues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it’s new black ice, you can be standing on the ice watching the loon swimming underneath you as it’s looking for a way out of the situation,\u201d he said. \u201cThey’re panicked that way \u2026 we’ll make some loon calls just to pique their interest and keep them from getting too scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loon Preservation Committee<\/p>\n

Once he had the loon in the boat, Cooley wrapped the bird in a towel. \u201cThe loon is often exhausted at that point and will just settle down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Loon Preservation Committee used a portable X-ray machine to examine the bird when he was safe on land. Once they confirmed the loon was in good health, they gave him a ride to the Atlantic coast, where New Hampshire loons head before moving further south for the winter.<\/p>\n

Loon Preservation Committee<\/p>\n

Cooley isn\u2019t sure why this particular loon didn\u2019t migrate on time. \u201cSometimes it may just be bad luck,\u201d he said. It could\u2019ve simply been the youngster\u2019s inexperience with flying south.<\/p>\n

Since loons are listed as a threatened species in New Hampshire, Cooley and his team make every effort to rescue each bird in need, ensuring the population continues to grow.<\/p>\n

This juvenile loon is lucky he had so many folks in his corner. He swam out to sea as soon as he was plopped back into the water.<\/p>\n

Loon Preservation Committee<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching the loon flap [his] wings \u2026 It was cool,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cIt feels like an adventure every single time, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you’d like to support the Loon Preservation Committee’s work, you can donate through their website<\/a>.\u00a0\"Rare<\/a>Rare Animal Rescued From Traffickers Undergoes Risky Procedure To Save Her LifeAgainst all odds, she kept fighting. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In early December, residents living on Big Diamond Pond in New Hampshire noticed a tiny, black speck floating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[9544,110768,85,46,110766,110767,9893,141,2865,9542,386,58457],"class_list":{"0":"post-194442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-daily-dodo","9":"tag-iced-in-loon","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-loon","13":"tag-loon-rescue","14":"tag-sarah-ashley","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-standard","17":"tag-the-dodo","18":"tag-wildlife","19":"tag-wildlife-rescue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}