Monday, June 7, 2010 6:01am CDT

 

46 degrees   Clear      Wind NE 4mph

 

 

A single wail from the nest stands out from all the other bird calls.

 

There is no mistaking a loon call.  It is so different and unique from any other calls that once you hear it, you never forget it.  This is the second call in the last few minutes.   But this morning there is no answer from the mate.  So she sits on the nest and patiently waits.

The dew lays heavy on the grass.  There is almost a fall-like chill in the calm, clear air this morning.  But it is predicted to get into the mid-70s today.  This is the feel of being in the "north woods".  A morning chill and then warming to a perfect day.

 

Today is day 33 for the first egg and day 31 for the second egg.

 

There is still a possibility that both eggs might hatch.  But with each passing day, the chances of a successful hatch go down.  Last night a couple of people were convinced that they had seen movement indicating a chick was hatching.  But then haven't we all at one time or another.  We have wanted so bad to see a chick that sometimes we have convinced ourselves that something was starting to happen.

 

There are no obvious indications this morning from the loon on the nest that she has a chick underneath her.  But things have surprised us before.  So once again there is nothing we can do but wait and watch.

 

If we do not have a chick that hatches in the next couple days, then we are at the point that there probably will not be a hatch this year.  But until then we can hope.

 

We have had a successful hatch on this nest every year except the first year.

 

That first year they went almost 2 weeks beyond the expected hatching date before something took the eggs....probably an eagle.  

 

There are so many questions to be answered this year.

 

Is this really the same pair of loons or is it a different pair?  There are so many behaviors that have been different this year compared to previous years.  My mind keeps going back to the long, extended chase between two loons that I talked about early in the season.  Was that indeed a territorial chase that ended in the previous pair (or at least one of the pair) being chased off the territory?

 

Or are there other things that explain the differences this year?

 

I do not think I have ever seen as many times when both loons were off the nest at the same time nor have I seen as many times when both of them were flying while there were eggs on the nest.

 

But now is the time to remain hopeful.  There is still a chance.  

 

But it is also the time to be realistic.  We may not have a hatch this year.

 

For now, the loon continues to sit on the eggs.  Faithfully.  Patiently.  

Sunday, June 6, 2010 9:10pm

62 degrees   Partly Cloudy   Calm

 

 

I wish I could fully describe the scene right now!

 

The sun has just set thirteen minutes ago and the lower edge of every cloud is an amazing color of scarlet and magenta and purples.  And beams of gold flare up into the sky from below the horizon.  It is stunning and too much for words.

 

Some have been questioning why the loon is off the nest.  I have just come back when I read all the messages and questions so I went down to the lake to look.

 

I do not see the loons anywhere on the lake but that does not mean they are not there somewhere.

 

But then I hear 'flying tremolos' far off in the distance.  It sounds like there are two calls.

 

Apparently both loons are flying somewhere.  That is a behaviour that I have not seen in past years....for the loons to take off and fly so much when there are eggs on the nest.  I do not know the significance of it.  But it is different from what we have seen for so many previous years. 

 

It sounds like they are getting closer so they must be coming back to the lake.

 

And then there they are!  Both of them!  Two loons flying in over the trees.  They make a long sweeping curve, their wings extended and still, their feet trailing behind them and their heads held slightly below the level of their bodies.  A typical profile of a loon in flight.

 

Then in a long sliding controlled-crash landing the come to rest on the lake.

 

Where were they?  Why did they leave and fly?  Why did they leave the eggs unprotected for so long?  There is absolutely no obvious reason nor apparent threat why they would have left the nest or why they flew.  There are a couple boats and fishermen still on the lake.  But nothing close to the nest nor any other reason that I can see why they would be off the nest.

 

Once again, questions questions questions.

 

 

Sunday, June 6, 2010 6:22am CDT

49 degrees   Clear   Wind W 3mph

The sky is clear and a bright blue this morning.  And the birds are all singing their Sunday best.  A chorus worthy of any choir.

The loon has just let out a single wail.  It is almost as if it is a call to its mate, "I am here waiting.  Where are you?"

But right now I do not see the mate anywhere in sight. 

This is day 33 for the first egg and tonight will be day 31 for the second egg.

So the questions start to mount if the eggs will hatch.  And the short answer is that I do not know!  But we are now at a fairly critical time.  If we do not see the eggs hatch in the next couple days, the chances of them hatching start to go down with each passing day.

But the loons have not given up yet.

They still sit faithfully on the eggs.

Questions have been raised of how long they will continue to sit on an egg that does not hatch.

A couple years ago we had a situation where one egg hatched and the other one did not.  The loon kept returning to the nest, along with the chick, to sit on the unhatched egg.  After about 10 days or 2 weeks, it was obvious that the second egg was not going to hatch.  So in consultation with several experts, we decided that the right thing to do would be to take the egg off the nest to break that bond and to let the loons and the chick get on with their lives.

It was a controversial decision and a number of people were very upset with me that we would do such a thing.  But in hindsight, I think it proved to be the right decision.  It almost immediately broke the bond with the nest and the parents could teach the chick what it meant to truly be a loon.  And that was to be in the water fishing rather than on an artificial nest with an egg that was not going to hatch.

We x-rayed the egg and found that the chick had died inside the egg about halfway through its development.  This fit perfectly with a time that the nest had been completely filled with cold water during a storm when an eagle had chased the loon off the nest.

One egg survived.   The other one did not.

But this morning it is too early to contemplate something like that.

There is still a chance that our eggs might hatch.

But I have to be brutally honest that now my concern begins to mount with each passing day.  A while back I said that if we went significantly beyond this weekend without a hatch, that a successful hatch starts to become questionable.  I still feel that way.

There is still a lot of hope.  But it begins to dim with each passing day.

There are documented cases of loons sitting on eggs for well over 60 days before finally abandoning the nest.  So the loons are faithful in doing their part.  And beyond!!

But in most cases of a natural nest along a shore, if an egg does not hatch, eventually a predator will take it.  Raccoons are the biggest predators of loon eggs from nests on shore.  So nature has a way of breaking that bond with the nest as well.

There is a 50% chance of rain or thunderstorms later today.  So the loons will be cooler as they sit on the nest.  And we still need the rain since it has been so dry.  But we do not need, nor do the loons need, any severe weather with high wind and waves or especially any hail.

But they take what they get.  And stay faithful in any kind of weather.  In hot weather.  In cold weather.  In snow.  In rain.  In hail.  In stormy weather.  In beautiful sunny, cool weather like it is right now.

For our loons right now, this is just about the ideal.  Like Goldilocks, not too hot, not too cold.  Not too windy.  Not too still.

This is just right!

Saturday, June 5, 2010 11:57am CDT

70 degrees  Light rain    Calm

 

I realize that I left out one piece of important information in my posts yesterday as well as this morning.  So here it is in answer to some of your questions.

 

When I put the egg back on the nest yesterday morning, I wanted to do it as quickly as possible so I had it in my hand only a matter of seconds.  I could not take the time to examine it as much as I would like or to savor the moment.  It was get it back on the nest quickly and get out of there.

 

It was much like when I did the loon rescue that I told you about.

 

So many times since then I have wished that I could have taken the time to ENJOY holding a beautiful loon.  To look at every detail of it.  To examine it in depth.

 

Unfortunately, I could not fully enjoy the experience since the focus was on getting the loon back in a lake as quickly as possible and with as little stress on it as possible!

 

I would love to have been able to appreciate the moment more!  But given the priorities, I guess that speed and focus on getting the loon back in the water was the right one.  But it doesn't lessen the desire to have completely looked at and learned more from that live loon.

 

Now, back to the egg.....what little I was able to see of it as I rolled it quickly in my hand as I rushed it back to the nest, I did not see any pips, holes, cracks or anything else that was indicative of it starting to hatch.

 

I did not feel any movement inside it nor did I hear any peeping coming from inside it.

 

I remember thinking that it felt 'light'.  And that it seemed a little smaller than I had expected.  But I have nothing to base that on.  The only other time that I have had a loon egg in my hand is a couple years ago when we removed the egg from the nest so that the loons and the one chick could get on with their lives.

 

But this handling of the egg was so quick.  There was not any time for any scientific observations or measurements. Speed was of the essence for both the eggs and the loon pair that was there.

 

Let me add one other piece of information that you may find interesting.

 

I mentioned that when one of the loons dived as I was backing away from the nest, I watched him as he came toward me.  I was concerned about getting stabbed in the leg.  I could see him underwater as he swam directly at me.  But then he passed about 2 feet to the left of me.  I could feel the water currents from his powerful paddling as he swam by me.

 

But he swam by me with no attempt to stab me that I could see.  Then he made a turn underwater and  came back up off to the left side of the nest and watched as I continued to back away.

 

What a privilege....and responsibility....to be near such magnificent birds!

 

Saturday, June 5, 2010 5:48am CDT

58 degrees  Partly Cloudy  Calm

Not a breath of air stirs.

The early morning gold of dawn silhouettes the loon against the lake.  The perfectly still surface reflects everything around it in amazing detail.  Except for the circles of ripples that mark where a fish has just jumped.

If the loon remembers all the concern caused by one of the eggs being dragged out of the nest into the water yesterday morning, it certainly doesn't show it.  It sits there on its eggs like it has every other morning for the last month.

Last night was the 28 day mark for the second egg and the 30 day mark for the first egg.  Oh, to be able to know what was going on inside those shells!  If there is a chick inside the egg that ended up in the lake, was there any damage by it being in the water?  I can't believe that there was because it was such a short time and the water temperature is relatively mild now and the egg was in the water for only a few minutes.

But only time will tell for sure.

We are still within the normally accepted incubation period and can still hope for a hatch of two healthy loon chicks.  But if we do not see a hatch in the next few days, then concern begins to mount as to whether or not the eggs will hatch.

So once again we wait.

I have watched for any tell tale signs that the egg is hatching underneath the loon.  Every little twitch or movement catches my attention.  And then she settles down again and just sits there.  Right now I do not see any signs that an egg has hatched or that hatching is imminent.  But that can all change in the blink of an eye!

Let me finish the story about the loon rescue that we have talked about the last couple mornings.

So far on "Loon Rescue 24"!!!

You will remember that a loon had landed in a small pond/big puddle in a buffalo pasture.  Unable to take off from such a small body of water, it was doomed unless someone stepped in to rescue it.  After a scare that an eagle or some other predator had taken it, it was found and captured and taken to a lake to be released.

After it had been released and had a chance to get its ruffled feathers all straightened out, it swam across the lake.

Then it happened!

A full blown loon fight broke out on the other side of the lake!!

There was fighting and splashing and penguin dancing and yodeling and tremolo calls and every other indication of a big fight between two loons.  Another friend had told me that he had seen a pair of loons on this lake.  Now I had released a loon and he had immediately gotten into a fight with one of the loons on the lake!  What else could go wrong for this poor loon?

How could it go from bad to worse like this.  First being stranded.  Then dragging himself across land for such a great distance, trying to find a stretch of water big enough for him to take off and fly.  Then being chased and a net thrown over him and a coat wrapped around him.  And this human grabbing him and taking him he knew not where!

My friend who originally called me about the loon said that they had heard another loon fly over the farm several times in the previous day-and-a-half, calling as it flew.  He said it was as if the loon was looking for something.

And now this tired out loon that we had just rescued was in the fight of his life!

It could end not well for our 'rescued loon'.

The two loons fought.  And splashed.  And called.  And chased each other.  

Helpless, all we could do was stand on the other shore of the lake and watch.  This went on for at least five minutes straight!

Then as suddenly as it began, the fighting stopped!

And even more surprisingly, the two loons swam peacefully together!

No more fighting.  No more calling.  No more splashing.

Just peacefully swimming side by side.

We watched for sometime.  But we saw no more fighting and we finally left.

I had to smile and laugh to myself as I drove home.  I don't know for sure that this is what really happened but it made a good and plausible story in my own mind.

The loon we had rescued was not a 'foreign loon' to this lake after all.  It was the other half of the pair that was on this lake.  The loon flying over the farm and calling was not some random loon but the other half of the pair!  She was out looking for her mate!

And now that we brought the rescued mate "home", she swam up to him and started hitting him around the head with her wingtips and loudly yelling at him, "Where have you been?!!!  You don't tell me where you are going!  You stay out all night!  You don't call!  And here I am at home worried sick about what has happened to you!  What is WRONG with you!!!  I don't know if you are dead or alive and you are out gallivanting around!  I even went looking for you I was so sick about it!  What am I supposed to think?!!!  What am I supposed to do?!?!?"  TAKE THIS!  And THIS!!

And after she had gotten it all out of her system, they both settled down and swam peacefully together.

I can't say for sure that that is what happened because I could not hear ALL the words!

But I had to laugh as I drove home after the rescue about the possibilities of that happening.

But at least one loon had been rescued.  Rescued from certain death in that buffalo pasture!