Maine’s loons are on the mend, filling more of the lakes and ponds in the state with their haunting calls. Maine is home to a few thousand of the large waterbirds, and conservationists say efforts to protect them from threats have helped grow the population. The state has the largest loon population on the East Coast. Maine Audubon says an annual count of common loons found more adults and chicks this year than last. The group says it estimated a population of 3,174 adult loons and 568 chicks for the southern half of Maine. That’s more than twice the number in 1983, when the count started.