56 degrees Raining Wind 2 mph S
Sunrise 5:53am Sunset 8:26pm
In the first early light of a Minnesota dawn, two loons quietly swim right next to the nesting platform. Lazily floating 'round and 'round.
A steady drizzle hits the nest and speckles the calm surface of the lake.
We continue a wet weather pattern that has seen thunderstorm after thunderstorm move through. This morning it is just a quiet, gentle rain. But more rain and storms are predicted for most of today.
The loons could care less. Even though they are so beautiful and brilliant on a bright sunny day, they are at home in the water. Whether they are swimming in it or whether it is coming down on them from above.
Water is their element.
Nesting time is one of the few times in their life that they come to land.
For someone who is so graceful on and under the water and so clumsy and awkward on land, it must be a real sacrifice and struggle for them to have to get out of the water and spend time on land. But it is a sacrifice they make each year to ensure that there is a new generation of loons to enrich our lives for years to come.
And each generation of loons does enrich our lives for many years to come. For you see, loons are very long lived birds. No one knows for sure how long loons live but we do know that they can live for 25 to 30 years. That is many years of beauty and haunting calls that tell us we are in the north woods.
As the loons wait, so we wait. Wait in anticipation of an egg.
Wait in anticipation of beautiful, little baby loonlings.
Comments or Questions? LoonCam(at)yahoo(dot)com
Copyright 2012 Larry Backlund