Tuesday, June 9, 2009 1:28pm CDT

61 degrees   Overcast   Calm

Just another quick update.

The whole lake is still.  Like a mirror.  The early morning fog has lifted. 

And way out near the middle of the lake one of our loons floats with two little chicks.  The first chick now almost exactly two weeks old.  Weeks that have gone so fast since it first pecked its way out of its sheltering shell.

While I am watching, the other adult  loon appears  a little ways away.  Or is it one of our loons?

The loon with the chicks dives and comes up over by this other loon.  It may be an intruder loon.  I am not sure.

And now the chicks are swimming all by themselves.  It had been such a relief when I saw them.  It always is.  To know that they are still ok.  The chicks are doing some diving of their own.  They are able to stay down for about 5 or 10 seconds before they resurface.

But now they look so all alone and vulnerable swimming all by themselves while one of the adult loons swims out to this other loon. 

Then yet a third loon comes flying in and lands a ways away from the other two.  OK, now ONE of these loons is not "our loon".  But which one?  Or are two of them not "our loons"?  Sometimes I just wish they would wear nametags or something!  It would make it so much easier to identify them.

There is no fight.  But there is some excited diving.  And yet sometimes they seem to just swim together peacefully.  So many things that raise questions.  There should be a big fight.  There isn't.  The chicks swim all by themselves over there swimming in closer to shore.

Now when I check on them half an hour later, there are five loons - yes, you read that right, FIVE loons - swimming together out in the middle of the lake!

There still is no fighting that I see nor any alarm calling that I hear.  But there is a lot of diving and a little bit of splashing.  So it is not an entirely peaceful "congregation".

I have often wondered if some of the "extra" loons that we have seen this year are the young from previous years.  But there is no way of knowing for sure.  Does that explain the lack of an all-out fight?  Or is it completely unrelated?  So many questions.  So few answers.

I don't see the chicks at all now.  So my level of concern rises slightly but I have no reason to believe that they are not ok.  I assume that they are just swimming somewhere in the rushes off to the left.

Anyway, through all of this I can report to you that our chicks were healthy and active a little bit ago.  And that I think they are still ok.  But the activites are just enough to raise the level of concern slightly.  Sometimes I wish I didn't see as much as I do.  Or at least when I see activity, that I knew without a doubt exactly what was going on.  But such certainty is not to be always found in real life.

Stay tuned!  I will try to periodically give you an update on what I see.  And to hopefully tell you with each report that the chicks are thriving!  And for anyone else on the lake, feel free to post what you see in the Chat Room.  That is helpful to all of us.  More eyes, more information!

Questions or Comments?  Post them here or in the Chat Room or send them to LoonCam@yahoo.com

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 5:44am CDT

43 degrees   Calm   Foggy

On a chilly morning, the lake lies completely shrouded in fog.

I can see out to the nest, the loons former home, and slightly beyond.  But then everything disappears into a world of white nothingness.  Somewhere out there, the seagulls are calling with their raucous voices.  A single loons swims by with no chicks.

I assume our chicks are out there in the fog someplace, too.  Although I can't see them.  Nor do I hear them.

It is hard to believe that it was two weeks ago right now that we got our first view of a hole being pecked in the first egg.  And then later on that morning, the first chick hatched.  Our chicks are almost 2 weeks old!

So even though I can't see them right now, I assume and hope that both chicks are doing well somewhere out in that fog.

It is about at this stage that the chicks are able to start making their first meaningful dives.  They still are nowhere proficient at it.  But it is more of a dive than they have been able to do before.

They still are not able to dive quickly or deep enough to get away for sure from fast boats or jet skis, but they now stand more of a chance than they did a week ago.  It will still be several weeks before they will be able to catch their own food.

With their rich diet of fish supplied by their parents, they grow quickly at this stage.  They are still covered in black down but they definitely have grown since they were hatched.

So somewhere out in the whiteness of this early morning on the lake, we have to take it by faith that our loons are out there.  Unseen.  Unheard.  But hopefully doing well.

Questions or Comments?  Post them here or send them to LoonCam@yahoo.com

Thursday, June 4, 2009 9:52pm

63 degrees  Twilight   Calm

Tonight is another one of those picture perfect evenings.  The kind that take your breath away.

The kind that call you.  That make you just drop whatever you are doing and stop to drink it in.  To savor it.  To let it just seep into every pore.

The sun set a little while ago but now it is that wonderful twilight time.  The lake is still and our loons are swimming straight out from the nesting platform.  They still tend to stay on this side of the lake but they venture further and further away from the nest.  In fact, they spend very little time near the nest now and have not been back on it since that first day.

But for now, they sit straight out from the nest.

The water reflects the pink glow from the horizon and it just surrounds you and wraps you in its glow.  There is a bright moon that is almost full hanging in the southern sky.   And our two chicks are busy feeding.  Once again the familiar routine of the parents diving and bringing minnow after minnow to the chicks.

It was one week ago last night that the second chick was born and one week ago this morning that he finally jumped off the nest into the water.  You remember the scene.  The chick standing at the edge of the nest last Thursday morning as the rest of the family swam nearby.  He just couldn't quite muster up the courage to make that big jump.  But finally he did - never to return to the nest.

Some of you will remember two years ago when one of the eggs did not hatch and the chick kept returning to the nest for about a week or ten days.  The good part was that we got to see the chick growing.  The bad part was that he was not off swimming and learning how to be a loon.

Finally we removed the egg that did not hatch and that broke the bond with the nest.  It is one of the only times...if not the only time .... that I have violated my rule not to interfere.  After consulting with several wildlife professors, zoo experts and DNR experts, we all agreed that it was time to take the egg.  And some people were very upset that we did it.  But it proved to be the right thing to do.

My rational was that we had provided an artificial nest that removed all danger of land-based predators.  And therefore we had already altered what they would normally face.  A racoon or some other predator would have taken the unhatched egg if the nest had been on land.  So after waiting long enough to know that there was no chance it was going to hatch, we removed it from the nest and almost immediately the loons left the nest.  The bond to the nest was broken.

Tonight you could see that the chicks have definitely grown.  It is hard to tell how big they are from a distance.  But they definitely have grown.  They are still the balls of black down.  Just bigger.  I would guess, and it is only a guess, that they are maybe 3 to 4 inches long.

They are still at that stage where they are very vulnerable to predators and boats and jet skis.  And they still ride on the parents back.  This morning at dawn, both of the chicks were riding on the adult loons back.  That wonderful, wonderful iconic view of loons and their chicks!

So tonight I just wanted you to know that our chicks are still alive and thriving and doing well and growing.

Life is good!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 11:05pm

I do not want to make this blog in anyway about me.  But because so many of you have expressed prayers and concern about my recent biopsy, I felt that I owed it to you to give you a report.

Today I received the results from the biopsy and the results are the best possible news all the way around.

Let me quote a couple lines from the report that I received:

"The results of the tissue removed during your colonoscopy indicate: Inflammatory polyp.

Inflammatory polyps do not progress to cancer and do not increase your risk of colon cancer."

So THANK YOU to all of you for your care and concern!  You are the best!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 11:22pm

48 degrees   Calm

Can you believe it?!

It was one week ago today that the first chick hatched!

Already ONE WEEK OLD!

I am happy to report to you that both chicks are still doing very well and seem to be very healthy and active.

Early this morning just as the sun was coming up, there they were.  Mom and dad.  And two chicks.  Swimming on a lake as still as glass.  Two balls of black down floating next to mom and dad.  It was obviously breakfast time for the chicks after a long night.  The parents were in their mode of catching a minnow.  Feeding it to a greedy hungry chick.  Diving for another minnow.  Feeding.  Diving.  Feeding.    Over and over.

And the chicks appetite seemed to be endless.  As was the parents willingness to catch minnow after minnow and then, swimming over to the chick, gently feeding it to him.

I wish that you had been able to watch the scene. 

But even if the webcam had still been active, you would not have been able to see it since they were well away from the nest.  If that helps you not feel too badly about the days of watching the loons close up being over for another year.   And anything less than some of the really long, high quality telephoto lenses would have shown you nothing but some black spots far away on the lake.  Do you remember vacation pictures where someone would say, "See that little black spot in the bushes?!!  That was a HUGE black bear!"

One of the technical wizards picked up some of the equipment that it took to bring you the pictures from the camera on the nest, including the video server on which we burned out 4 different channels!

He mentioned that they had received a phone call a few days ago from a company in Australia that does nothing but monitor internet traffic and webcams.

This company said, "Did you know that the Loon Cam had more traffic than any other webcam in the world for the last several days!!!  By a large margin!" 

He told me that there had been millions of hits on the webcam.

I have not seen any official reports yet but that is what he passed along to me and so I pass it along to you with thanks.

I still stand back in awe of that and how the Loon Cam has become such a world wide phenomenon!  Thank you for being a part of that and for telling so many of your friends and family about it.  What really excites me though is that you have had so many kids watching our loons.

I hope it is an experience that they will never forget for the rest of their lives.  And that they have learned something new about loons and come to appreciate and value them.  And wildlife and nature in general.  And this wonderful creation that has been entrusted to us.

So THANK YOU!!!