36 degrees F Clear Calm
Good news for you.
Tomorrow morning the good folks from Broadband MN are supposed to be out here with the new camera and will be working on all of the technical things that are required to bring a picture to you. There is a lot of work to be done. In all likelihood it will still be a few days before we are able to be live with the camera once again but I wanted you to know that things behind the scenes are progressing.
A couple times over the past few days I have sighted a single loon on the lake. I have yet to see a pair of them but I have been gone a lot, too. One of the neighbors a couple days ago told me that he had heard at least one loon calling out on the lake.
I have not hear a call yet but like I said I have been gone a lot. I am still waiting for that first magical call of spring.
When I have been home, I have not seen a loon investigating the nest yet so I do not think you have missed anything at all. Many years it has been a couple weeks after they first investigate the nest before they get serious about building their nest and laying an egg.
But with unusually mild spring weather, who knows how to predict what impact that will have on the nesting schedule this year. Or what the loons will do.
It seems like every year they do something that totally surprises us.
If you have not been following the USGS 'satellite transmitter' loons, they are now starting full migration with the 40% of them on their way north as of today. The loons remaining on the Gulf will no doubt follow soon.
http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/migrations.html
What is it that they know? What goes on inside their brain and their body that says "Now is the right time to start flying north."? What triggers that impulse to migrate?
And the biggest miracle of all, how do they find their way back to the very same lake! All without AAA TripTics, maps or GPS. We think we are so smart but they have had this figured out for thousands of years without any help from us. Once again I choose to view it as one of countless miracles that are placed all around us that we seldom take time to stop and look and learn and consider.
We know that a number of loons have been up here for almost 2 weeks already.
Why did they come north early and the other loons are still waiting?
So many questions. So many mysteries. So many wonders!
But very soon we will be able to once again watch our loons and learn from them.
I hope that I will have the privilege of meeting some of you at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN this next Sunday, April 1 at either 1pm or 3pm. Invite your family and friends and teachers to come with for a beautiful spring outing in the Mississippi River Valley. Or let your Facebook friends and your Twitter tweeters and all the other social media know about it.
http://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/live-eagle-watching/march-31st-and-april-1st/
Or if you cannot make it to the National Eagle Center, I would enjoy meeting you at the Sandhill Center for the Arts on April 17th at 11am for lunch.
http://www.stfrancisce.com/insight/registry/classinfo.asp?courseID=4834&catID=1045
What a wonderful time of year!
Daffodils and crocuses and Nankin cherry and apricot in full bloom. Tulips and apples and pears on the verge of blooming. Rhubarb leaves already 10 inches across. Grass turning emerald green. Leaves bursting. Trees in bloom.
The evidence and promise of new life all around us.
The only thing that would make it better?
LOONS!
Comments or Questions? LoonCam@yahoo.com