Saturday, May 8, 2010 6:47am CDT

 

You are watching right now one of the dangers to loons hatching their eggs! 

 

The female loon got off the nest without the male in sight.  For some reason, she doesn't seem to be overly concerned to head back to the nest but she does have her head held very high.

 

At first it is if she is looking for the male. 

 

She swims back to the nest and preens, but does not get on the nest.  Then she swims back out. 

 

It is then that I see her and the male swimming together with heads held very high.  What are they concerned about.  There is no calling however.

 

THERE it is!  The object of their concern.

 

There is a third loon in the area!

 

An intruder loon that they are concerned about.  It is now 20 minutes that she has been off the nest leaving the eggs exposed to the cold!

Saturday, May 8, 2010 5:48am CDT

32 degrees  Cloudy   Wind NW13mph

The yodel of a male loon pierces the cold morning air and echoes around the lake.

Wisps of fog race across the surface of the water, driven by the wind under a leaden gray sky.  The cold bites through.

This certainly can't be mid-May!  Only days ago it was in the mid-80s.  Now it feels like February again.

Then another yodel from the male who is sitting some distance away from the nest overpowers the sound of the wind.  There is no other loon apparent that he seems to be challenging.  There is no other predator that is obvious.  There is no other eagle flying overhead.

It is as if he is shouting into the  sharp cold wind that 'it will take more than this to defeat us'!

And then from the nest the female answers with an undulating wail!  She agrees, too.  She is not defeated.  It will take more than a little cold and snow and rain and wind to make her give up on her mission.  She is firmly ensconced on her eggs.

Last night in the snow she laid the second egg.

They now have the two that they will incubate for the next four weeks.  A third egg is unlikely.  And probably unnecessary.

All night long she sat protecting those two precious eggs.  Keeping them warm.  Sheltered from the rain and snow and wind and cold.

She rises up on her legs and looks down at the two large brown mottled eggs and turns them with her beak.  She settles back down on them taking care to get them just right.  Rocking back and forth until she is sure that she has them covered completely.

Then she lowers her wings around the sides of them and locks the tips of her wings under her tail.  No north wind is going to sneak through and get to her eggs.  They are as snug and warm as they would be on a day with sunshine and 75 degrees!

9:12pm We Have a SECOND EGG!!!!

In the midst of SNOW coming down on our loon!!!

Friday, May 7, 2010 8:38pm CDT

34 degrees   Dusk   Wind  N13mph

In the fading light of day, banks of fog are blowing across the lake like the manes of horses.  Sigurd Olson used to call them "the galloping horses of Lac La Croix".

But those 'manes' are just an indication of how cold it is.  They are the water vapor of the evaporation of the relatively warm lake water as it hits the 34 degree air blowing over its surface!  And the wind is blowing them like galloping horses across the lake.

And now as the temperature drops, flakes of wet, heavy snow are mixing in with the rain.  Yes, snow!

Is this some cruel joke by Mother Nature?!  Snow in May?

After an unusually warm spring, now the weather has turned unusually cold.

But our loon is sitting faithfully on the egg in the nest.

Someone asked what a loon would do if it snowed.  

I don't know because I have never seen this before.  And the rain and the snow are starting to obscure the lens of the camera making it hard to see how the loon is reacting.  I am sure this is nothing new for loons since they nest in the far northern reaches of Canada where they can get snow in every month of the year.

But for us in the 'lower 48' it is hard to see snow this time of year.  And I think we project those feelings on the loons.

There is almost a certainty of freezing temperatures tonight.  In northern Minnesota there is a chance for accumulation of snow...maybe even 2 to 4 inches!  And there are MANY loons on the lakes of northern Minnesota and the Boundary Waters.  They will be dealing with much more snow than our loons will be here in central Minnesota.

Let me add some more information about the muskrat being on the nest last night.  I told you how when he had crawled up on the lower right corner, the loon turned her head and shot him the 'evil eye' and then two tremolo calls aimed directly at him.  And he made a mad dash  back into the water.

I thought that would be enough to keep him off the nest.

But alas no!  About midnight he was back!

This time in the corner of the nest where the camera and microphone wires come down and enter the water.  And he was GNAWING!!!

The loon turned and looked but did nothing.  No movement, no call.  Apparently he was  just far enough away that she felt he was no threat to her or the egg.

But he was a threat to ME!  With all the gnawing sounds, I imagined all of my worst nightmares, especially that he would gnaw through the cables and that your picture and sound would disappear.  Probably for the year since it would be almost impossible to fix with the loons on the nest.  And that was a prospect that I was not ready to let happen.

I shined the bright light down there.  But it didn't seem to faze him.  Fortunately it did not seem to upset the loon either.  But it did not help.

So in the dark, down to the lake I went.

I walked out on the dock, something I NEVER do when the loons are around!  I hoped that I would not frighten the loon.

Then I heard a big splash!

Something had left the nest!  But was it the loon?  Or was it the muskrat?

I headed up to the house to check the picture from the camera.  Imagine my relief to see the loon still sitting contentedly on the nest and no sign of the muskrat.  And more importantly, no gnawing sounds!

So for now, everything was peaceful and secure.  But would it remain so?  Now I could not be sure since he had come back.  When he first appeared a week or two ago, I had sprayed that area of the nest with hot pepper wax.  I hoped if he got a taste of that he would never come back.  It seems like he likes spicy food!!!

But I had to be up very early in the morning so I could not stay up all night on guard against him.  I had to be content that what happens, happens.

Imagine my relief early this morning to see that the cam was live and working.

So continue to enjoy the view...or whatever you can see between the snowflakes.  We will all learn tonight what the loon's reaction will be.

And hopefully come daybreak, our loon and our 'promise of life' will both be ok.

Thursday, May 6, 2010 8:43pm CDT

 

50 degrees   Dusk    Calm

 

Finally we are done with the wind!  At least for tonight.  This is more like it should be instead of the howling winds that we have seen so much the last few days.  [Once again, let me remind you though that the winds are not near as bad as what the microphone has made them sound.]

 

I was gone from early this morning until just a while ago.  So I am sorry that I was not here to observe with you and to answer some of your questions.

 

You need to know that right now the loon is securely settled on the nest and very relaxed.  A little while ago there was still only one egg.  I suppose that there is a possibility of the second egg tonight but I do not think so.  I think it is more likely sometime tomorrow or maybe even on Saturday.  So for what little comfort it brings you, you are not missing anything right now and the probability is that you will not miss the second egg as long as they are able to get the problem fixed within a reasonable time.

 

I am so sorry to hear that you are having problems with the video and audio feeds tonight!

 

Let me assure you that both audio and video are looking good from here.  I have reported it to MN Bound.  I have not heard back from everyone but I am pretty sure the problem lies somewhere beyond them as well.

The last rays of light are fading and tonight should be a much more calm if chilly one for the loon.  

 

From some of the posts that I have read in the chat room it sounds like today was a fairly eventful day.  Let me try to answer some of the questions that have been raised.

 

From the description of how the loon half flew off the nest around noon, that sure sounded like it was caused by an eagle flying overhead.  That would be typical of an eagle scare.  Shortly after I got home tonight, I did see the immature bald eagle flying over the lake.  So without seeing what happened at noon, I cannot say for sure that that is what it was but it sure sounds like an eagle.

 

I am sorry that she scared some of you and scared some of your dogs and cats with her loud cry!  But if you were scared, can you imagine what she was feeling?

 

You are all becoming such wonderful loon 'researchers' and observers!  The amount of knowledge all of you have gained is wonderful.

 

It is great to see some of the classes of students watching!  I hope that you learn a lot and come to like and respect loons even more.

 

The eggs should hatch in about 4 weeks.  So if you are still in school, hopefully you will be able to watch the chicks hatch.  If not, ask your mom and dad real nice if you can watch it at home.

 

Someone asked if the loons have many predators...we will talk about that more at some point.  But today is a perfect example of the bald eagle being one of the loon's predators and there have been instances of a bald eagle taking an adult loon.

 

For the next 4 weeks, the loons will do almost nothing else other than make sure that one of them is on the nest almost all the time.  And even after that, they must take care of the little chicks and feed them.  So it is a LOT of work for the adult loons.

 

Some of you have expressed concern about the egg rolling off the nest into the water or even being kicked out of the nest.  That DOES happen with loon eggs and 'many' are lost to something like that [I don't think there has ever been any kind of study to know exactly how many.]

 

There are several things that might help to put your mind at ease about that happening.

 

First of all, the loons this year have constructed a relatively deep nest.  So that alone should help insure that the eggs are not kicked out of the nest and it is almost impossible that the eggs would simply roll off.  Some nests are flat enough that it does not take much for the eggs to roll off.

 

Several of you have also commented  that you think the nest is way too close to the edge of the platform.  Much of that is an optical illusion with this view from the camera.  The nest is slightly off center toward the 'top' and 'right hand' side of the nesting platform.  But it is much closer to the middle than it looks like in the view we get here.

 

So the possibility of the eggs rolling into the water is a possibility but a VERY slim possibility.  It is WAY down on the list of my concerns and I would be very surprised if it would be a problem.  We have never lost an egg in that manner in all these years of doing this nest.

 

Tomorrow I will be doing a presentation about loons at a major bird club in the Twin Cities area.

 

Then for those of you in the Twin Cities, KARE11 TV has asked me to do two shows on the LoonCam.  A Saturday morning show and a weekday afternoon show.  As soon as they finalize the dates I will try to let you know if you want to watch.  Others of you may be able to watch online...I am not sure if they will be streaming it or not.  The afternoon show will be Ron Schara, the founder of Minnesota Bound, and I so that will be fun to be able to do the program with Ron.

 

So right now  the loon is settled in for the night.  It is quiet.  It is calm.  It is peaceful.

 

 

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

 

 

 

After I had posted the message above, just a few minutes after 10pm, I heard a 'rustle' over the speaker as I was watching the news...so I switched over to the LoonCam.  At first I did not see anything.

 

But then, SURE ENOUGH!

 

BEADY eyes shining in the water near the top left corner of the nest!  Our dear friend, Mr Muskrat was back.  He looked but he did not try to get up on the nest.  Very soon he reappeared  at the right-hand corner of the nesting platform.  This time he did scramble up on the nest.  I thought to myself, this is going to be interesting!!

 

Would the loon attack the muskrat?  Would the muskrat scare the loon off the nest?  I thought I knew who would be the winner but I could not be sure because I had never seen this type of confrontation before.

 

The loon did not move her body at all.  She simply turned her head all the way around and faced the muskrat.  She let out two tremolo calls.  They were not even that loud for tremolo calls.  But it was enough to send the muskrat scurrying back into the water!  And he was gone.

 

As simple as that, she had taken care of the problem and scared off the intruder!  And told him in no uncertain terms, "This is mine!"

 

For those of you who have asked, it is very unlikely that a muskrat would take the eggs even if he scared her off the nest.  But for tonight, it was Mr Muskrat who got  a surprise and a scare!

 

Now all is well again.