Events start to come much faster now.
The news increases in not only speed but amount.
The changes of spring comes at us from all directions and at times comes close to overwhelming our senses. But the wonder of it all fills us with awe and gratefulness for all that has been placed into our lives and all around us.
Tonight I arrived back home shortly after dusk. It was almost dark but still light enough to see the changes that had taken place. Most of the ice is out of the lake! Talking with some neighbors, it went out today. It will take another day or two for it to be completely ice free but there is definitely enough room and open water for loons.
One of the residents on the lake said that tonight they saw two loons!
So they are back! And they are back on the day the ice went out. How do they do it? We can only stand back in wonder of what they do.
Are they 'our' loons? Who knows. I have not had the privilege of seeing them yet. Or are they just a pair passing through and stopping here while they wait for lakes farther north to open up? We will just have to wait and see.
But we have arrived at the time we have been waiting for. The arrival of the loons!
There will still be a few days at least before I will be able to get into the lake and put the nest out. But we are getting close. Tomorrow some of the 'techies' will be here running cables and hooking up servers and all the other amazing equipment that allows us to send live pictures to you from a loon nest. Where else can you watch the beauty of nature unfold right before your very eyes and you watch them as if you were only a couple feet away. But you can do it without them even knowing you are there.
Now is the time to give a 'heads up' to your friends and family and schools and teachers to let them know that it will not be long before the LoonCam is LIVE once more!
It is noisy here tonight!
With the lake now mostly ice free, the seagulls are here by the thousands!
So from the lake, there is the almost deafening sound of all those seagulls. And from the little pond in the woods, from the other direction there is the sound of thousands of spring peepers and frogs.
It is like there is 'dueling wildlife' tonight!
Today there is also news that Loon #55489 just moved from the Gulf of Mexico to southern Lake Erie near Cleveland, Ohio. So if you are near Lake Erie, you may want to make a trip down to the shore to see if you can spot some of the loons on Lake Erie. And if one of them has an antenna sticking out of his back.... looking like your kid's radio control car ..... that is our loon #55489!
He apparently did it in one of those marathon flights and may have flown all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Erie in one non-stop flight.
Loon #55488 is still on eastern Lake Erie northwest of Erie, Pennsylvania, near the Pennsylvania-New York border. So once again, if you live near that area, you may be able to spot many loons there including #55488. They probably won't stay long. So now is the time to look for them if you have the opportunity.
Loon # 55490 has started moving farther north on Lake Michigan and is now near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
And loon #55484 is still near the Illinois-Indiana border on Lake Michigan.
At least three of the loons seem to have transmission problems but apparently are still alive. It may be a bent antenna or something like that and it prevents them from getting an accurate location for them.
Every day that passes now gets more exciting. So don't miss one of them.
Check back here often to see what is happening and share your experiences and your observations with everyone in the Loon Chat Room.
I just gets better and better!