84 degrees F Sunny Wind Calm
Sunrise 5:25 am CDT Sunset 8:57 pm CDT
15 hours 32 minutes of daylight
Today has been a spectacular summer day! SIMON has really delivered after a long, chilly May.
Although the bright sun has been a little hard on our loons as they sit on the nest. It got above 90 degrees here at Loon Lake, although I don’t think it felt like it. The humidity has not been high. So it has been tolerable for us.
But for the loons sitting on the nest, it has been very warm.
They have been doing a lot of panting today and going into the water more often to cool off.
When they go in the water, that gives us a chance to check the condition of the eggs.
A number of people watching have said that they have seen a definite pip. And some have said they have seen the movement of the chick’s bill as it breaks through the eggshell.
We could very well be seeing the first stages of hatching!
Although I have to admit that I have not seen anything that I personally can say is definitive. But I have missed a number of the views of the eggs that other people have seen. And some of them are very experienced LoonCam watchers so they know what they are talking about.
There was one time today that I saw what very much looked like it could be movement of the chick breaking through the shell. But I kept asking myself if it was shadows or my eyes playing tricks or because I WANTED it to be the real thing!
But some have said that they definitely saw a pip!
The one thing that has been missing for me is seeing the ‘twitches’ and ‘flinches’ of the loon on the nest as it feels the chick moving it and poking it from below as it tries to make its way out of the egg. But in the earliest stages they may not feel some of that. And from the first pip it can take 24 hours for the hatch to be complete. The chick will work ever so hard, and then have to rest for a while.
So we wait and watch and hope. And we can’t take our eyes away from what we are seeing.
Both of the chicks should be either fully grown or ever so close to it. It is Day 26 this afternoon for the 1st egg and Day 23 early this morning for the 2nd egg. So if the eggs were fertile, we are either AT or oh so very close to the hatch happening!
Now I don’t want to be negative in any way, shape or form, but it is important that we are also realistic about the possibility of “IF”. We will know very soon.
But let us think the best. That BOTH eggs are fertile. That there is magic and a miracle happening inside each of those eggs! And that we have two beautiful and healthy little loon chicks that are ready to make their big debut into this amazing world that they will enter.
A world that they will make even MORE amazing by their presence!
Copyright 2019 Larry R Backlund