56 degrees F Clear Wind Calm
Sunrise 5:56 am CDT Sunset 8:23 pm CDT
I just got home a little while ago - at 10 pm.
As I stepped out of the car, a loon was wailing. And it sounded closer to the middle or this side of the lake.
Then there was an answering wail from off to the left side of the camera, but not close to the camera. Not across the lake but closer.
I went out to the lakeside of the house to see if I could tell where they were.
Then the wails became more frequent. And were soon joined by yodels. Then answering tremolos. Then yet another wail from further away, more across the lake.
There obviously were at least 4 loons calling back and forth although I could not see any of them in the darkness. So it was hard to tell who was who. It seemed like the calls from the left of the nest was a pair. And the two wails were from 2 other loons, possibly singles since they were separated by some distance.
But they could also be a pair because pairs will often spend time separated from each other at some distance.
I stood there just enraptured with the chorus. What a beautiful and even magic sound.
As I was standing listening to the loon symphony, there was a large and loud SPLASH that was definitely near the nest. My first thought was that it was a large fish jumping. A bass or a carp. Or that it might be a loon on or near the nest.
But then remembering the family of geese being on the nest a couple nights ago, I wondered if it might be the goose family again.
I rushed inside to look at the monitor. No sign of anything on or near the nest. Or that the geese or any loons were in the immediate vicinity of the nest.
So whatever was going on, it was wonderful to hear the loon symphony on a very calm night with the lake like a sheet of glass. It is so good to be rid of the wind which has been non-stop for the last couple days.
But it was good to know that several loons were around and active.
Let us still hope for successful nesting this year. Unfortunately the clock is ticking and time time is running short for our loons to lay eggs and hatch them.
But let's keep our fingers crossed. In ever present hope.
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