59 degrees Thunderstorms Wind 3mph E
Have you had enough drama for one season yet?
After an all-night rain and heavy rain this morning, late afternoon turned into a beautiful, quiet, sunny blue sky day.
But then tonight as if out of no where, numerous severe thunderstorms and tornadoes developed over a broad section of the state!
As we say in Minnesota, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. [I am sure some of you in other states say the same thing.]
Tornadoes and large damaging hail were heading toward the lake.
One tornado was confirmed not very many miles away.
But once again thank God nothing severe hit our loons.
I had a couple people tell me that we had hail but if we did, I missed it. I was on the phone with my brother during much of the storm and we were tracking the storm on radar online to see how close it was going to come to each of our houses.
But the loon sat firm all through the rain and kept the eggs warm and dry...although dry is not all that important to the eggs. The loon brings quite a bit of water every time it gets back on the nest. That added moisture may actually help the eggs. If you have ever hatched duck eggs, some people recommend misting the eggs once in a while.
So a little moisture and even rain may not harm the eggs at all.
But then several yodels almost blew my speakers out!
That answered which loon was on the nest. It was the male since the male is the only one that yodels.
That is somewhat unusual to see the male actually yodel while he is on the nest.
There were other yodels from somewhere out on the lake and that is obviously what he was reacting to and what he was answering.
Then he left the nest!
That is the disadvantage of having another pair of loons on the same lake. They may draw each other off their nests and the conflicts could affect the hatching of the eggs.
When I looked out across the lake, I could not see the other male that was yodeling even though I could hear him. The male swam out to another loon that was obviously the female. They swam around for a number of minutes - although I didn't time it, I would guess they were off the nest about 10 minutes during the rain.
I am probably like many of you. I know I need to trust their instincts. But when they are off the nest, especially in the rain, everything in me screams, 'Get back here! Don't you know you have 'little ones' that are depending on you?!
But then one of them came back to the nest, did the traditional egg roll and settled on the eggs.
Once again the lightening and the thunder and the rain are picking up. But the radar is not showing anything severe. Most of the severe weather is well beyond us. Hopefully this will be just a 'garden variety' thunderstorm with nothing severe. Although we have had enough rain for one day!
Earlier today the loon spent a lot of time in full hangover position. I am not sure what that was about. There were no boats close by. There were no people along the shore. I even looked for eagles and could not see any flying anywhere.
The loon kept in the hangover posture even though there did not appear to be any danger.
Sometimes they see and feel things that we can only wonder and speculate about. And sometimes there are no explanations that make any sense to us. But apparently something makes sense to the loons.
But for now, all is calm on the nest once again.
We can only hope that it stays that way for the next week or so.
Because in a little over a week we should see the first little loon chick peek out from under the wing and take in the wonder of a big world he has never seen before!
Questions or Comments? LoonCam@yahoo.com