35 degrees Snow Flurries Wind North 2mph
Snow flurries!
Can there really be snow flurries? Again?
Some of you may have been watching just now when I was out to the nest to do a couple last minute things. This may be the last opportunity before the loons nest. They seem to be getting pretty serious. And once they are on the nest, I will not go anywhere near it except in the most extreme instances.
They have been on the nest several times today.
And each time they seem to be doing more serious nest building. There is now the form of a very nice bowl that they have formed.
One of the things that I wanted to do is to wipe the camera lense since there seemed to be some smudges on it. I think I was able to remove those smudges although there may be more that come before we are done with this year.
I also applied some more adhesive to the camera mount to make sure the camera does not move in high winds. You will remember that last year the wind knocked it out of alignment two different times. I do not want to have to go down there to readjust it while they are on the nest.
The other thing I did was to adjust the microphone. A number of you mentioned that it was very muffled. I may have done too good a job. Now the squeaking noise (and annoying noise) of the styrofoam of the platform is back as it moves with the waves. We had not been hearing much of that before.
If the loons give me the opportunity tomorrow, I may try to go back out there one last time and see if I can get rid of that styrofoam squeak. It is a tough balancing act to try to get the clearest sound but to block out that squeak and also the wind noise which plagued us last year.
Even though the loons were nowhere in sight when I went down there, within minutes I saw them swimming toward the nest! How they can see from so far away, wherever they were, is yet another one of the miracles.
At dark, they were still swimming around the nest.
The good part of that is that it really shows how strong the bond is with the nest and almost guarantess that we will have nesting this year.
They did not seem alarmed at all as I did some other work at quite a distance from the nest. But they definitely wanted me to see that they were there. I am amazed every time I see that.
I did not want to spend anymore time in the water than necessary. It is painfully cold. And with snow flurries filling the air, I questioned my own sanity as much as I am sure the loons did!
While I was at the nest, I was able to look to see how it was holding up in the wind and the waves. That is always a concern with high waves battering it. The waves can literally wash the nesting materials away.
That is one of the dangers of "natural nests". They may wash away or just be submerged if the water rises.
But fortunately, the nest looks to be in very good shape. Much better in fact than I had expected after the wind and waves of the last few days. We have a long month or more that the materials have to hold together to provide protection for those precious loon eggs.
I noticed that several had wondered if I was going to put plants on the nest like I have done in previous years.
They are already there!
You will see them as they begin to grow in the next few weeks....if the weather ever warms up!
We are one step and one day closer to the loons nesting. Laying eggs. And hopefully having little chicks once again this year.
I hope you and all your family and friends join us for the whole adventure from beginning to end.
Just a reminder for those of you in the Twin Cities, we will be talking about the LoonCam on KARE11 tv on Saturday morning, April 30. It will be on the "KARE Saturday" show. Right now they are saying it will be about 9:20am, but that can always change. I do not know if you will be able to watch it live online if you live in other parts of the world or if they will post the spot after the show.