LITCHFIELD – They put the loon’s name to a class vote.

“Henry” won.

The unexpected gift of an adopted loon last fall sparked interest among Charlena Beganny’s students: They found out how deep Henry can dive, what he eats and how unpredictable the birds’ nests can be.

Her Carrie Ricker School homeroom students built floating loon islands on Wednesday. The nests were basic, but time consuming: five thick cedar beams and a layer of wire mesh each.

Before an official launch, they’ll be covered in mud, grass and plants – all the trappings of a desirable loon flat.

The first goes in Buker Pond in June.

Loons will likely swim around it suspiciously for a year or two before deciding whether to call it home.

Diane Clay, a member of the Litchfield Conservation Commission, lives on Buker. The pond has two resident adult loons.

“We see them come back year after year, but we don’t see babies,” she said.

Water levels in the Tacoma Lakes chain fluctuate with rain or beaver interference or dam controls. Too high and loon nests, which the birds always make near the water line, will flood; too low and they’re suddenly unreachable.

And sometimes nests just fall victim to loony planning.

Clay said that one pair on Woodbury Pond have pretty good luck each year with chicks, while another hits closer to 50-50. They lay the eggs on rocks, and half the time the eggs roll off.

The students’ islands will be anchored by cement blocks on the lake bottom with enough slack to rise and fall.

A dozen sixth-graders spent hours notching the wood with chisels and hammers, donning oversized work gloves and enjoying the novelty of the project.

“They are, like, my favorite birds,” said Shelby Morris, 12. She brought in 78 lead sinkers that day from her dad’s tackle box so they wouldn’t be used again. “(Loons) think they’re dirt (so they eat the sinkers,) and they can’t dissolve in their stomachs so they die.”

Chimed in friend Kris Merrill, 12: “I don’t like animals that die at all.”

The project, originated by the local conservation group, got help from the Friends of Cobbossee Watershed and Central Maine Bassmasters.

Beganny, a science teacher, had a loon expert visit kids early in the week. She thought they came away from the nest-building project feeling accomplished, having shown teamwork, cooperation and patience, and having done something nice for loons.

It all began when Beganny’s mom surprised the class with a loon adopted in their name through the BioDiversity Research Institute in Falmouth. Henry swims somewhere in Androscoggin Lake, near Blodgett Island.

He was banded last July and weighs 14.5 pounds, a little chunky for a loon. No word if he has a wife and kids.

Maine Audubon estimates 4,300 loons live in Maine. Wildlife biologist Susan Gallo said there are dozens of manmade loon nests in Maine, and half of the nests in New Hampshire are on floating rafts.

They won’t make attractive homes to a pair that have already successfully mated on a lake; those birds are going to prefer their current nest, she said.

Gallo also cautioned it’s a long-term commitment. Nests have to be checked during the season to make sure the rope on the bottom is secure. And they have to be hauled out every late fall and returned to the same spot after ice-out in the spring.

Ideal places are safe from wind, in water at least 3- to 5-feet deep and concealed from predators like skunks, eagles and raccoons.

Maine has healthy loon numbers; Gallo suspects that is helping loon populations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont, where the birds are threatened or endangered.

Clay and others will kayak Buker Pond in the next few weeks to pick the perfect spot for the classes’ first floating loon nest. A ceremonial launch will be June 11.

Their second nest and two from the Bassmasters will be released on other Tacoma Lakes.

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