I had meant to give you an update on the egg that was bumped out of the nest by the loon when I posted earlier and I forgot.
I have not taken it in to the DNR yet. I have let them know that I have it and we will be discussing everything in more detail. Even after I take it in, it may be sometime before we hear back with any results.
But for those of you who have been so faithfully watching and documenting everything that has happened, you might be interested in knowing some details of the egg that was found floating in the water and retrieved some distance from the nest.
It is about 3 7/16 inches (87.3mm) Long and about 2 5/16 inches (58.7mm) in Diameter.
It weighed about 130 grams (that is just over 1/4 pound) and had a volume of about 145cc (cubic centimeters).
These figures compare favorably with some measurements given in previous studies where the length of eggs ranged from 86.5mm to 91.6mm and the diameter from 53.9mm to 57.1mm. Volumes in the studies ranged from 124.3cc to 150.3cc.
The egg is a very dark olive brown with even darker olive brown spots...not black spots but close. There is a very slight "orange peel" texture to the surface of the egg.
Loon eggs are dark enough and the shell thick enough that you cannot successfully "candle" them to see what is inside....although I did try candling this egg just to make sure. I could not see any detail through the shell.
I have to admit that as special and humbling as it is to handle a real loon egg, I would much rather be handling shell fragments after a successful hatch!