38 degrees F Clear Wind NW 12 mph
Sunrise 5:44 am CDT Sunset 8:35 pm CDT
It seems like winter has returned to Minnesota.
There has been a cold blustery wind blowing all day long under a cloudy and sometimes rainy sky.
And tonight there is a FREEZE warning for a good share of northern Minnesota, including here at Loon Lake. And there is a frost warning for the rest of the state.
This freeze warning covers most of the Upper Midwest and even reaches all the way out to the East Coast.
So we may very well see frost on the nest in the early hours of tomorrow morning. Especially if the wind dies down over night.
All day long it has felt like a November day rather than a day in mid-May. It is hard to believe that just one week ago today we were in the mid-90s!
As I mentioned this morning, we will leave the LoonCam on for a few more days. Minnesota Bound will be running a segment on the LoonCam this weekend and by leaving it on for a few more days, additional people will be able to see the loon nest even though we don't have any loons nesting.
I missed seeing it live but this morning a loon was up on the nest.
This seems to be the 'single' loon that has been on the lake all spring.
The loon was on the nest for about 4 minutes.
The bands on both legs were fairly visible and from that I am almost sure that this is our female from the last couple years.
But I will also ask Kevin Kenow of the USGS to look at the video and see if he concurs.
I think that she is probably the loon that chased the goose off the nest a few days ago.
All of that would fit if this is last year's female who still has a sense of ownership of the nest even though the male was killed last year and she does not have a mate. If he was still alive, I do not have much doubt that they would have nested by now.
When he was killed, we knew there was a very real possibility that the nest may not get used this year. And that seems to be what has become reality this year.
I also mentioned that I found out last night that the other pair of loons on the lake has apparently nested according to a couple reports.
One of the reports said they saw the loon on the nest at least a week and a half ago. So they nested at about the time that would be expected.
A loon usually visits a potential nest for a couple weeks before they get serious about settling down and actually nesting. And since this loon does not even have a mate, for any number of reasons we have to deal with the reality that the LoonCam nest will probably not get used this year.
But let's enjoy the next few days. And hope for more glimpses of our female loon from the last couple years.
Questions or comments? Email us at LoonCam at yahoo dot com. Because of the volume of email I will not be able to respond personally to each email. But I will eventually read every one and for recurring questions I will try to answer them here in this blog.
Copyright 2016 Larry R Backlund