By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, August 18, 2017
This summer has been torture for loons, as a huge crop of biting flies drove adults off their nests across the northern U.S. states and southern Canada.
Parents abandoned their eggs in large numbers, often returning a week or two later to lay new eggs when the flies had gone. Many had babies that hatched very late in the season — in mid-July rather than the usual late May or June.
This got loon scientist Walter Piper wondering, and then writing: “Are late chicks doomed?”
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/science-of-summer-good-news-for-baby-loons