32 degrees F Clear Calm
Sunrise 5:49am CDT Sunset 8:30 pm CDT
On a beautiful, chilly spring morning, a loon has just slipped off the nest into a lake that is like a huge mirror.
Little wisps of fog drift across an otherwise totally still lake.
The sun has not been up for many minutes. And the rest of the world around the lake is starting to wake up.
There is frost on the car and on the grass. But where the sun has hit, the frost is already losing its battle.
After an interesting few days of work to repair damage from a lightning strike, the LoonCam is once again live for another season!
It was so interesting yesterday afternoon to watch what happened.
Since the nest was put out in the water 2 weeks ago today, the loons have been on or around the nest less than 1% of the time. But as soon as the camera was turned on yesterday, the loons were immediately ON the nest. Not just once, but a couple different times.
In the course of that first hour or two after the LoonCam was turned on, the loons were around the nest more and longer than they had been since the ice went out of the lake two and one half weeks ago.
It was as if they had been waiting for you to show up. There was no need to come unless you were here to say HI to them. And as if they were saying, "I am ready for my close-up, Mr. deMille!"
I sat here watching it with a smile on my face and shaking my head in disbelief at the timing.
They have already been in this morning and on the nest and now are swimming away to fish and relax. They have a lot of work and responsibility ahead of them and they will need all the energy they can muster.
I have been able to identify one of the loons of this pair. It is the male that we banded in 2012.
You may remember that he was also the one that showed up at the nest last year. But he showed up with a new mate. The female from 2012 also came back 3 weeks earlier than the male but he came back with a new female several weeks late. And then they did not nest at all last year.
I have not gotten a real good look at the female this year to definitively say who she is. But from what I have seen, it does not look like she has bands. So I think that it may be the same unbanded female from last year.
We will just have to wait and see what this year brings.
Today is Fishing Opener in Minnesota when tens of thousands of people head to the lakes. So it could be a busy day on the lake for our loons.
I hope that you enjoy the broader view with the new camera. The shoreline that you see at the upper part of the screen is about a mile away.
But for now, settle back in your chair and enjoy a beautiful spring day on a northern lake in Minnesota!
Does it get any better than this?!!!
Comments or Questions? LoonCam@yahoo.com
Copyright 2014 Larry R Backlund