48 degrees Calm
Can you believe it?!
It was one week ago today that the first chick hatched!
Already ONE WEEK OLD!
I am happy to report to you that both chicks are still doing very well and seem to be very healthy and active.
Early this morning just as the sun was coming up, there they were. Mom and dad. And two chicks. Swimming on a lake as still as glass. Two balls of black down floating next to mom and dad. It was obviously breakfast time for the chicks after a long night. The parents were in their mode of catching a minnow. Feeding it to a greedy hungry chick. Diving for another minnow. Feeding. Diving. Feeding. Over and over.
And the chicks appetite seemed to be endless. As was the parents willingness to catch minnow after minnow and then, swimming over to the chick, gently feeding it to him.
I wish that you had been able to watch the scene.
But even if the webcam had still been active, you would not have been able to see it since they were well away from the nest. If that helps you not feel too badly about the days of watching the loons close up being over for another year. And anything less than some of the really long, high quality telephoto lenses would have shown you nothing but some black spots far away on the lake. Do you remember vacation pictures where someone would say, "See that little black spot in the bushes?!! That was a HUGE black bear!"
One of the technical wizards picked up some of the equipment that it took to bring you the pictures from the camera on the nest, including the video server on which we burned out 4 different channels!
He mentioned that they had received a phone call a few days ago from a company in Australia that does nothing but monitor internet traffic and webcams.
This company said, "Did you know that the Loon Cam had more traffic than any other webcam in the world for the last several days!!! By a large margin!"
He told me that there had been millions of hits on the webcam.
I have not seen any official reports yet but that is what he passed along to me and so I pass it along to you with thanks.
I still stand back in awe of that and how the Loon Cam has become such a world wide phenomenon! Thank you for being a part of that and for telling so many of your friends and family about it. What really excites me though is that you have had so many kids watching our loons.
I hope it is an experience that they will never forget for the rest of their lives. And that they have learned something new about loons and come to appreciate and value them. And wildlife and nature in general. And this wonderful creation that has been entrusted to us.
So THANK YOU!!!