50 degrees Cloudy Wind SE 12mph
THIS MAY BE THE DAY!!!!
The loon has raised her wing a couple times. Ever so slightly. Right now she is sitting still.
But this could be what I have told you to watch for before. For lack of a better term "twitching".
I have an idea that we may very well have a chick that is pecking its way through the shell of the egg!!
I am always hesitant to say too much, too soon. But this is where hope springs eternal! This is where it gets so very exciting. This is where the long days of waiting possibly pay off.
Is it the actual hatching?
We can once again only watch and wait. Even if we wanted to do something, we are powerless to do anything. This is not something we can control. This is not something that we can dictate what will happen. We are mere observers to this miracle of creation!
Can it truly be that it was less than four short weeks ago that we watched the eggs being laid? Time that has gone so fast? Like it was yesterday? But also like it was SO long ago!
What mind can even begin to comprehend what has happened in those four short weeks!
A simple egg. An egg like we crack open every morning for a breakfast omelet. Nothing to it. Simply shell and yolk and egg white. Oh sure, it was a little bigger than the eggs in our refrigerator. It was a different color - olive brown with dark spots instead of white. But it was like the eggs in our refrigerator. Nothing more. Nothing less.
OH! But it was SO much more!
And now we dare believe that something might have actually happened over the last four weeks!
That miracle of creation that transformed that yolk and white into a little black downy loon chick. Who among you dares say that you understand how that happens?
Who among you dares say that YOU can DO that?!!
I think not.
When you actually stop and think about what has happened and what is happening, it becomes almost too much for the simple human mind to fully comprehend.
But the first hopeful signs are there. This may actually be the time. This may actually be what we have been hoping for. Right now the loon has sat still and silent for a number of minutes. But 15 minutes ago there was that telltale lifting of the wing several times. Do we dare hope? Or was it just wishful thinking.
The other loon has been swimming a little ways out in the lake but has now come close to the nest. Does it sense that there is something more going on? That there is something new happening. Will the loon on the nest get off so we can see the eggs for ourselves? Or at least rise up and readjust them so we can look? Or is that too much to ask for?
The questions and the hope never end.
But once again I say to you WE MUST BE CLOSE!
Now is not the time to miss a minute! This is what you have been waiting for.
This is the time to call the kids and the grandkids and the neighbors and, well, and everyone you know! This is their chance to be witness with you to something so wonderful and marvelous and miraculous.
There it is again. Ever so slight. Almost imperceptible. That slight lifting of the wing. While the mate swims right next to the nest watching.
It just raises more questions.
How much do they know? What is going through their minds? Is there any comprehension? Or is it just "nature"?
Timeless questions that men have asked down through the millennia.
While we wait and wonder and hope, let me point out one other thing to you.
You have watched as the loon sitting on the nest has panted with its beak open. If you haven't watched closely, watch today at how far back that beak goes. And how big it is. And how big the mouth of the loon is.
It is big enough for the loon to swallow some pretty big fish. We are told that they can swallow fish up to 11 inches long.
Let me interrupt my own blog!
*****BREAKING NEWS*******
The loon just got off the nest and there is a definite HOLE in the end of the egg!
AND there is definitely MOVEMENT inside that egg!
WE HAVE AT LEAST ONE CHICK THAT IS TRYING TO MAKE ITS WAY INTO THE WORLD!!!!
He has gotten his first view of daylight and his first view of this big new world through that tiny "keyhole" that he has pecked in the shell of his egg. His prison and his protector for the last 28 days.
It is now 5:50am.
***********
So the signs were there. And they were right. The slight twitching and the lifting of the wing did indicate a chick that was trying to peck its way out of the egg. And the loon on the nest was good enough to get off and give us a view to confirm it!
So what we have been hoping for is coming to pass!!
OK, back to what I was saying about the beak of the loon.
Watch to see how large the mouth actually is! It is large enough to swallow some fairly large fish. They tell us they can swallow a fish up to about a pound in weight which is a fish 10 or 11 inches long. I have seen one picture with a loon with a fish that big in its mouth and halfway down its throat. It looks like they would choke on it, but swallow it they did.
Most of the fish they eat are much smaller than that. More like minnows and small perch and sunfish.
But the reason I bring it up now that we are so close to hatching, is for you to watch when the loon brings the chick its first meal. They will swim up to the side of the nest with the TINIEST little minnow held in their beak. And they will hold it out for the chick to eat.
So that same beak that can catch and eat a pretty big fish, can also catch the tiniest little minnow and gently feed it to the chick.
The dexterity and gentleness is a wonder to behold. Yet one more wonder!
So, get ready for the ride today! This looks like it will be the day for the first chick to hatch! And then the second chick will probably be tomorrow....or maybe even later today!
How much better does it get than this?!?!?!?
Questions or Comments or Observations? Post them here or in the Chat Room or send them to LoonCam@yahoo.com