63 degrees Partly Sunny Wind NNE@12mph
I have been gone for a couple days so when I came home a little bit ago I appreciated reading what all of you had posted. Thank you!
Many pairs of eyes are much better than one pair of eyes in documenting what is happening. So thank you very much.
I was surprised when I walked in the house. What was coming over the speaker sounded like a good-old fashioned Minnesota BLIZZARD!!
I almost expected Laura and Pa Ingalls to walk in the door and stomp the snow off their feet and exclaim, "It ain't a fit night out there for man nor beast!!
Trust me, the wind is not nearly as bad as it sounds sometimes. It just depends on how it hits the new microphone.
As you have seen, the microphone is very sensitive and even picks up the sound of so many birds. Most of those birds are some distance away from the nest but you can hear them clearly. A couple of you also mentioned you hear talking and music yesterday. Obviously I can't tell you what that was since I didn't hear it but my guess would be that it was someone in a boat on the lake or someone somewhere along the shore with a radio. If I hear it sometime when I am here, I will let you know what I see or hear.
I went down to the lake to see if I could spot the loons since they were nowhere near the nest.
I 'think' I saw them all the way across the lake. They are hard to spot sometime under even ideal conditions. But today with the waves and with them diving, it was even more difficult. But it is a good illustration of the fact that they are around even when you don't see them.
I have mentioned several times that I would go down to do something on the nest when I knew that they were not in the area. And then out of no where they would just appear! So they see me even when I do not see them.
Just a minute ago, I looked down there and lo and behold there come both loons swimming toward the nest. But they have decided not to come in right now and are sitting a ways out from the nest or maybe even swimming back out into the lake some.
They will return to the nest when they want to!
But just know that they are out there. Looking as beautiful as ever and doing well.
Once the eggs are laid, then you can be almost GUARANTEED of seeing them every time you look for the next 4 weeks! I still would guess, based on their behavior, that we would see eggs laid sometime in the next few days.
Someone asked about last year. The ice went out April 5th. The LoonCam went live April 22nd. The first egg was laid April 30th. The second egg was laid May 2nd. One egg hatched May 26th and the other egg hatched May 27th.
Hopefully that gives you something to compare this year against.
Keep watching. Keep telling your kids and your neighbors and relatives and friends to watch.
It only gets better and more exciting with each passing day.
And get some sleep! Some of you won't get any sleep once they are on the nest with NIGHT VISION on!