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DLIA Charter
The purposes of this Association shall be:
(A) To encourage and give opportunities to the members and all lake residents to meet and develop good social relations.
(B) To stimulate interest in, and disseminate information on the conservation, protection, and improvement of Deering Lake, especially with concern to: water quality, recreational resources, safety, and natural resources of the lake and its shoreline.
(C) To be the unofficial representative of Association members in good standing (“members”) with public, private, town, county, state and federal entities and agencies in matters that have the potential to have an impact on the Deering Lake watershed.
loon mortality Summary of technical findings from NH Veterinary Diagnostic Lab
We x-rayed and necropsied it last fall here at LPC. We could see a bullet in the x-ray, but we couldn’t find clear damage internally from the bullet. No internal bruising or bleeding, and any remaining injuries, like an entrance wound, were pretty well healed.
We checked with Dr. Mark Pokras, who you may know leads the mortality and health investigations for loons in the Northeast, and we submitted tissue samples for histopathology.
The histopathology results are interesting. Although the report mentions the gunshot as a possible cause, further evaluation from NHVDL pathologists ruled it out as unlikely, or at least, just one part of the picture, and weeks old, anyway.
Both parasitism and other infections contributed to the mortality. The loon also had smoke residue in its respiratory tract (trachea and lungs). It was a small loon, and we speculate that it could have originated in Canada, where wildfire smoke has been worse in recent years.
So – it looks like it may have brought all these problems (including, perhaps, the gunshot) with it to Deering, and there’s no local cause (or culprit) to worry about. That’s our best guess. We did notify NH Fish and Game at the time of necropsy, as we are required to do when we discover that a loon has been shot, but the subsequent findings lessened the concern about criminal activity – the crime didn’t kill the loon, and it probably didn’t happen in NH, if the loon was migrating through. It took a while for all the information on the case to unfold – the histo report came in December, but the finding of anthracosis – smoke residue – was really only explained in full (at least to me) through a presentation by the pathologists at loon meetings in March.
The last interesting thing we could do is to submit tissue from the loon for genetic testing, to match it to a breeding population (Canada, or New England, etc.). We are working on that, but it would prob. be another 6 months for that to produce results.
I am glad to answer questions by email or phone, and I know we owe you information on a few other cases. I will work with our vet interns to send a compiled summary. Wanted to get you this case finding first!
Thank you, as always, to our Deering field technicians, underpaid!, who monitor and manage the nesting, and rescue or collect the distressed. Much appreciated!!!
John Cooley, Jr | Senior Biologist
Loon Preservation Committee
603.476.5666/LOON
deering lake oral history project
Preserving the Stories of Our Lake, Our People, Our Place
A project of the Deering Lake History Exhibit
Deering, New Hampshire
Prepared by The Deering Historical Society
April 2026 newsletter
AUGUST 2025 newsletter
DLIA CONstitution and Bylaws as Amended 2021
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PO Box 691
Deering, NH 03244
Deering Lake Improvement Association (DLIA)
Deering, New Hampshire 03244, United States
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