Thursday, September 9, 2010 11:08pm CDT

 

57 degrees   Light Rain   Calm

 

After so many days of heat and humidity over the last couple months, there is definitely a feel of fall in the air.  Chilly fog filled mornings.  Grass covered with heavy dew.  And we are almost to the autumnal equinox when we have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night.

 

The days change so quickly at this time of year.  Where only a month or two ago, it was not dark until almost 10 o'clock, now it is dark by 8pm.

 

Along with all the other signs, the fall migration has begun.  Delicate beautiful monarch butterflies are on their phenomenal journey of over a thousand miles.  I have not seen any orioles at the jelly feeder for a couple weeks so I assume that they are on their way as well.

 

And our loons.

 

I have not seen nor heard them for several weeks.  I have been gone a lot and not had much chance to be out on the lake, but I would have expected to see or hear them at some point.  So I have to assume that they are also preparing to fly south.

 

Normally loons will gather in large groups called 'rafts' as they prepare to begin their fall migration.  They gather on large  large lakes called staging lakes.  These may be some of the larger lakes in the area or they may be one of the Great Lakes.  The Great Lakes are a apparently a major area for the gathering of loons.  But there is so much that is unknown about loon's migration patterns and needs and about their wintering habitat and behavior.

 

That is one of the reasons for the study that Kevin Kenow from the US Geological Service is doing on the migration of loons.  The original purpose of the study was to try to determine how and where loons were picking up the botulism toxin that has killed so many over the last ten years.  There have been upwards of 80,000 water birds killed on the Great Lakes and several thousand loons have been killed by botulism.

 

As I have mentioned before, I was privileged to be a part of the team that captured some Minnesota loons for the study.  We surgically implanted satellite transmitters in two loons which will allow them to be tracked as they migrate south this fall as well as when they migrate north next spring.  Eight loons in Wisconsin were also implanted with these satellite transmitters as well as 80 loons in Minnesota and Wisconsin that were outfitted with data recorders on their legs that will record where they migrate as well as how deep they dive.

 

All of this information will help to try to determine how they are picking up the botulism that is killing them.

 

You are probably familiar with "botox" which is used for cosmetic surgery.  Botox is the same botulism toxin that is killing loons.  In small quantities that are used in cosmetic surgery, the botox paralyzes facial muscles that cause wrinkles in the skin.

 

But in larger quantities in a loon, the botulism toxin causes muscle paralysis....especially of the neck muscles of the loon.  The loon is then not able to hold its head up and it drowns.

 

Some of you are already aware that sadly one of the two loons in which we implanted a satellite transmitter was found dead on Lake Michigan.

 

He left his home lake on the St John's campus earlier than any of us expected.  He was tracked by satellite travelling over to Lake Michigan.  So far there was no cause for great concern.

 

But then one day, the satellite data showed a low body temperature of 21 degrees Centigrade (about 70 degrees).  Kevin tracked the satellite data throughout the day as the loon drifted to the SSE on Green Bay of Lake Michigan.  He drove all the way over there and was able to find the loon on the shore.  Unfortunately it was dead.

 

The big concern was what had killed it.  Was it a casualty of botulism?  Or had something else happened?

 

A necropsy done by the National Wildlife Health Center since then has determined that the loon probably died from "chronic severe respiratory and systemic aspergillosis".  We have talked about aspergillosis (just called asper for short) before.  Loons especially do not do well in captivity.  When under stress of captivity they tend to develop asper.  This is true of some other birds as well but loons seem to be especially susceptible.

 

There are other tests being done on the air sacs of the loon's lungs for fungal cultures to try to determine more information of what happened with this particular loon.

 

A couple people have asked me if the death could be related to the surgical implanting of the satellite transmitter.  That is always an area of concern when you do something like that.  But the good news is that it did not have anything to do with it.

 

First of all, the death was a month-and-a-half after the capture of the loon and the implant surgery.  If there had been a direct connection, you would expect that it would have happened much closer to the time of the capture.  So that argues against a direct connection.

 

But also the necropsy showed that the tissues around the implant had healed and "did not appear to be adversely affected".  So that argues against the surgery and the implant having had a negative effect on the loon.

 

So now we await further information from the necropsy to find out what actually happened with this particular loon.  And hopefully we can learn from this unfortunate event.

 

I have been told that the link to track the loons by satellite hopefully will go live next week.  As soon as I have any information about it, I will try to give you a link.  And then you can track the loons yourself as they head south this fall.  How exciting will that be!

 

This part of the study will help us understand what route our loons take to their wintering grounds and what happens to them when they get there.  In light of the Gulf oil spill, this information takes on added urgency.

 

The best information that we have now is that loons from the Upper Midwest and central Canada may go equally to the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.  This would be one year where it would be nice if ALL of them went to the Atlantic Coast.  But we shall see what the satellite data tells us.  And you can be a part of observing this first hand!

 

Most of the loons from New England and eastern Canada go to the Atlantic Coast from Nova Scotia down to North Carolina.  So they should be safe from the Gulf oil spill.

 

There continues to be relatively good news coming out of the Gulf.  Most of the oil has "disappeared".  Now we know that it has not disappeared but at least it is not causing the major problems that had been forecast.  No one has a definitive answer yet about what has happened to it.  But it is thought and hoped that microbes in the Gulf have been eating it and 'neutralizing' it.  Let us hope that turns out to be the case and that the negative impact has been greatly diminished.  That would be wonderful news for our loons.

 

So right now loons all across the northern tier of states and Canada are now  gathering and beginning their migration south.  Typically the adults leave sometime between the middle of September and the middle of October.

 

Then in one of the many miracles of nature the young from this year leave about a month later and migrate from the middle of October to the middle of November.   Having never been to the Gulf or the Atlantic, they find their way on their own.  Another one of the miracles of nature that we do not understand at all.

 

So soon the great north country once again falls silent without the magical calls of the loons.

 

All through the winter we have only our memories to carry us through the silent months as we await the return of our loons next spring.  What will the spring hold for us and for the loons.  There is no way of knowing.  All we can do is wait and hope.

 

And then on that day that the ice goes out of our northern lakes, the wonder and excitement that we feel when we once again hear that first call of the loon.  That magical sound that stirs something so deep within us that it is even hard to describe.

 

The sound of the north!

 

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:34am CDT

 

65 degrees  Partly Cloudy  Wind NNW 13mph

 

 

It has been a while since I last updated things for you but then there is not much to update.

 

It has been a number of days since I have heard or seen the loons.  But then I have been gone a lot and have not been out on the lake in a number of days.

 

When we last talked, there was the question of whether there was a 'dead loon' on the lake.  There has been no evidence of that and therefore I hope that the report was not true and was just a misunderstanding of some kind.  I have looked a couple times and numerous other people have also been looking.  If there had been something, I would expect that we would have found something.  But then nature also has a way of "cleaning up" after itself.

 

I would like to tell you definitively that I have just seen both loons and that they are both doing well.  I think they are doing well.  But I can't make such a statement since I have not seen or heard the loons today.

 

A couple weeks ago a lady on the lake asked me, "Is it just me or are our loons quieter this year than they have been in the past?"

 

I told her that yes they have been quieter than what we have been used to for years.  But that it is completely normal for that to be the case.  For two reasons.

 

First, at this time of year loons do become less vocal when they no longer have chicks to protect as much as when they are small.  And secondly, as they move out of the breeding/nesting season, they also become less territorial and therefore call less.  

 

So though we enjoy and revel in the calls of the loons, even the quiet can be a good sign that all is well.  It makes our loons even more special when we are given the privilege to hear them and see them for that all too brief window of time.

 

So once in a while over the last couple weeks, I have heard that wonderful, beautiful, haunting call floating across the lake at dusk or in the night.  But it has become unfortunately more of an exception rather than the rule.  They may already be gathering in large groups called "rafts" as they prepare to fly south for the winter.

 

As many of you already know, one of the loons in which we surgically implanted a satellite transmitter is already apparently on his way for the fall migration.  As of last week, he was on Lake Michigan near Green Bay.  This is both good and bad.  It is good because part of the reason for implanting the satellite transmitter is to try to find out why loons and other birds are being killed by botulism in the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan.  But that is also the bad part....the possibility that the loon may pick up botulism poisoning in Lake Michigan.

 

I think it surprised all of us that he headed out that early.  I know it surprised me.

 

I would have never thought that a loon that had chicks would have left them that early in the season.

 

I would have been surprised that one of "our" loons, who did not have chicks this year, started its fall migration that early.  But for a loon with chicks, it was something that I would have never anticipated.  But then it just shows how little we truly know about loons.

 

And that is one of the great promises of having implanted these loons with satellite transmitters and attached data recorders to others.  Hopefully it will add yet more small pieces of information to our knowledge about loons until one day all the pieces add up to give us a more complete picture of these magnificent birds.  We all owe a great deal to Kevin Kenow and the US Geological Service and Carroll Henderson and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for all that they have done to make this happen.

 

I look forward to their fall migration with great hope and some trepidation.

 

A part of me wants to hope that they all go to the Atlantic coast this year to avoid the Gulf oil spill.  But even though that is what my heart tells me, my head tells me that they should do exactly what they would normally do so that we can learn from it.

 

I continue to be very encouraged by the news coming out of the Gulf....even though much of it is conflicting.

 

When the government told us a few weeks ago that 75% of the oil was gone and that it had just "vanished", I said that it had NOT 'vanished'.  Something happened to it.  If it indeed was gone, we needed to understand exactly what happened to it.  If indeed it was still there but just hidden in some way, we needed to understand that as well.

 

Then the prestigious Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute said that they had found huge plumes of oil and that there was no way that 75% had just disappeared.  But it turns out the plumes that they had found were way back in June, not current plumes.

 

Today the latest encouraging news is "New microbe discovered eating Gulf oil spill...'Great potential' for dispersing oil in deep sea, researchers report".  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38834330/

 

I am one who believes that the earth and the environment are amazingly capable of dealing with so much more than we give them credit for.  And that in the whole scheme of things, man in pretty insignificant.  We have known for decades that there are microbes and bacteria that eat oil.  But now they seem to have discovered a new microbe that is even more efficient at eating oil.  This should not surprise us since oil leaks out of cracks in the bottom of the ocean all the time.  And that there is 'something' that takes care of it.  Otherwise we would be awash in oil.

 

The only thing that is amazing is that man thinks he know everything.

 

I have little time for the alarmists on either side of the spectrum.  Unfortunately, many of them use a disaster like this to raise money or to make political points.  Neither of those is helpful. 

 

What is needed is a calm, measured response to determine what the truth and what the facts are. Then we can learn.  And then we can better understand what is actually happening.  We tend to want to step in and think we are in control.  And by doing so, only make matters worse.

 

In fact, let me say something here that might be controversial.

 

Over the last few months, I have had several conversations with different organizations that move in to help 'clean up' and wash birds and other animals caught in oils spills.  The "dirty little secret" is that the washing does very little good.  I had heard that before but with the current oil spill it took on new meaning. 

 

It has been know for some time that most of the birds that are washed end up dying down the beach anyway.  I read one statistic that said on average it cost $50-60,000 per bird that was 'rescued'.  (I have trouble believing that figure, too.)

 

I asked why they did it when they knew that it probably was not going to help and that the bird would die anyway.  They said, "Because people expect us to do something."

 

It might be time for a dose of reality for all of us and to realize that that money would be better spent elsewhere.  But even when I say that, I know that if I was standing there and watching something covered in oil struggling to survive, every fiber of my being would scream to do something.  To do ANYTHING!

 

As a side issue, let me mention something else.

 

I noticed that someone mentioned something about the wonder of monarch butterflies and their migration.

 

But I think that they left out the most amazing part of all!

 

As most of you know, there is an area in central Mexico that monarchs migrate to and spend the winter.  Monarch butterflies by the millions hanging in the trees.

 

But you may not know that there is another area like that here in the United States!

 

Most of the monarch butterflies from east of the Rockies go to this area in Mexico.  But most of the monarchs from west of the Rockies go to a small grove of eucalyptus trees in Pacific Grove, California.  The area in Pacific Grove is much smaller than the one in Mexico.  It is not much more than a square block in size.  But during the winter months, monarchs hang by the millions in the eucalyptus trees of this grove.

 

At first glance, they just look like dead leaves in the trees.  But then as the sun begins to warm them, they spread their wings and become a storm of bright orange fluttering wings.

 

It was in this grove that I first learned some years ago of the great miracle of the monarchs.

 

Let me try to summarize it from memory (so excuse me if I do not get every fact exactly right).

 

Monarchs go through 5 or 6 generations during the course of the year.

 

Each generation lives only about one month during their migration and during the summer.  But then as they approach the fall migration, THAT particular generation lives for 6 to 8 months!  Yes, you read that right!  Each generation lives for only a month.  UNTIL the generation that is to migrate south and overwinter.  That generation lives for many, many times as long as any of the other generations!!

 

The same species.  The same butterfly.  The same everything!  Except the length of life.

 

It is as if you lived to be 80 years old.  As did your grandparents and your parents.  And your children.  And your grandchildren.  But then all of a sudden, your great-grandchild lived to be 400, 500 or even 600 years old!!  And then their children once again lived to be only 80 years old.

 

So that one generation lives to migrate south to Mexico, survive the winter and start the migration north the next spring!

 

Call it whatever you want.  Call it nature.  Call it ________.  I choose to call it a miracle.  And one that we do not understand at all.

 

Most of the material about monarchs alludes to this and the information is there if you dig deep enough.  But very few resources lay out in plain English this phenomenon of the generations of the monarchs.

 

We think we know so much and that we are so smart.   And yet anyone who is honest, would say that the more he knows the more he realizes how LITTLE he knows.

 

Just like our loons.  We know so very little about them.

 

So we continue to study.  And to research.  And to learn.

 

And to stand back in utter amazement of all the miracles that have been put around us.

 

May you take some time today to stop and look. And think.  And ponder. And understand.  And marvel.  And step back in amazement at the wonderful world around you and all the miracles that we take for granted!

Saturday, August 7, 2010 8:03pm CDT

 

84 degrees  Hot and humid  Calm

 

I have just returned from paddling part way around the lake.

 

We are under a tornado watch until 1am.  Not a warning but a watch.  The heat and humidity have returned tonight and are supposed to be with us for the entire week.

 

This afternoon at a gathering of residents of the lake, a couple people told me that they heard that one of our loons was dead and what could I tell them about it.  I told them that it was the first I had heard about it and didn't know anything about it and of course I hoped that it was not true.

 

I have been gone most of the last couple weeks but I immediately thought about when I have seen a loon, it has been only one and not the pair.  However, at the same time, that is not at all unusual this time of year especially when they do not have chicks to protect.  But the thought immediately crossed my mind.

 

Then a couple other people told me that they had been out on the lake last night and saw only one loon!  They said they didn't think anything about it because they often see one loon and then see the other one on some other part of the lake.  But they said last night they saw only one loon.

 

So my level of concern went up a little bit.

 

Finally I was able to have them point out the person who told them.  When I talked to him, he told me that a couple days ago he saw a dead loon floating out in the lake.

 

As I questioned him, he was absolutely positive that it was a loon and that it was dead.  My level of concern went up.  He gave me a fairly clear picture of what part of the lake he had seen the dead loon.

 

If it was true that one of our loons had died, what had caused it?

 

Was it illness?  Injury?  Lead?  Fishing line?  Being hit by a boat or jet ski?  The questions came flooding over me.

 

Was it one of "our" loons or was it one of the other loons that we have seen on the lake this summer?  We have seen up to six loons on the lake at one time this summer.  Could it be one of them?  There was no way to be sure.  Even if I could recover the carcass, there was no way of knowing for sure which loon it was.

 

So tonight, I headed out in the canoe to paddle the shoreline to see if I could spot a dead loon.  Hoping that I would not!

 

As I pulled away from the dock, there sat one loon watching me.  Not too far from the spot where he and I had sat and watched each other at length a few nights ago.  He sat.  And I paddled.  Not know what I would find.  Hoping that I would find nothing.  Afraid that I might find 'something'.  

 

I had brought along a large garbage bag in case.  I didn't relish the thought of picking up a dead loon that had been in the water for a couple days in this heat.  But I knew it was important to determine the cause of death in case I found a dead loon.  So I brought the garbage bag with me.

 

I paddled among the weeds along the shore.  Looking for something.  Anything.  A flash of white.  A patch of black and white spots.  Anything.

 

As I went along the shore, I talked to several neighbors and told them what I was doing and what we had been told this afternoon.  And asked them to keep an eye out for anything that might wash up on shore.  Everyone was concerned but no one had seen anything.  But all of them promised to watch.

 

After going about half way around the lake (the area where it would have most likely washed up) and finding nothing, I turned and headed for home....still carefully watching for anything that might be a dead loon.

 

Shortly before I got back home, a jet ski pulled up to me.  It was one of the neighbors.  He had gone with his boy all the way around the lake.  He said that he had seen TWO loons.  One on the other side of the lake and one not too far from where we were right then.  That was the loon I had seen when I had pulled away from the dock and he was swimming in almost the same spot.

 

But what a relief it was that he had see another loon on the other side of the lake.  Then his little boy said, "Dad, I saw a third one on the other side of the lake, too."

 

So I am not sure what to tell you.

 

On the one hand there is somewhere who is absolutely positive he saw a dead loon a couple days ago.  On the other hand(s), I saw one loon tonight and this neighbor saw two loons tonight and his boy maybe saw a third loon.

 

Since you so faithfully have followed these loons, I wanted you to be the first to know of this.  We will keep watching and looking.  And hopefully NOT find a dead loon.  But if anything more develops out of this, I will be sure to let you know.

 

So for tonight, I "think" our loons are ok.  And I look forward to hearing their calls tonight.  And for many nights to come!

 

 

Thursday, August 5, 2010 11:01pm CDT

66 degrees   Clear   Calm

[I want to thank all of you for letting us know about the Tall Ships in Duluth!!  I think it was Tess that first mentioned them being in Cleveland....excuse me if it was someone else who first mentioned it.  That was the first that I had heard that they were there and were coming to Duluth.  So on the spur of the moment we went to Duluth to see them and spent the last several days there.

AND....we were actually able to sail on the Roseway as it led the ships out to the start line and started the next leg of the race.  It was awesome.  And the crew on the Roseway are really a great bunch of people doing great work with kids.  I saw the Roseway leave port early this morning and it was almost like watching family leaving.

So THANK YOU to all of you for letting us know about the Tall Ships!!

They are tentatively scheduled to be back in Duluth in 2013 so maybe all of you should plan on coming to Duluth for it!]

I had promised you some time ago to say a little more about the oil spill in the Gulf but have held off since there is so much that is unknown.  And probably will be unknown for some time.

I will probably make everyone mad since I am at neither extreme....I am somewhere in the middle.  There are those on either side who are trying to use this to their own advantage.  Some would have you believe that this is no big deal.  And others would have you believe that this is Armageddon and that we should never pump another drop of oil anywhere.  In my humble opinion, both are absolutely wrong.  The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.  I do have a science background but I certainly claim no expertise or great insight into this problem.

I have read some reports that 80% of our waterfowl, including loons, will die this winter and never return.  I think that is a huge overstatement.  Or at least I hope that it is.  But we will not really know until this fall and winter.  And there is absolutely nothing we can do to prevent them from migrating down there.  Someone said to me 'can't we just capture most of the loons and hold them here this winter'?

First of all, it would be impractical and impossible to capture a significant number of loons.  And secondly, even if we could capture a number of them, we would be sentencing them to a certain death because loons do not do well in captivity at all.  We have talked about that before.

They become easily stressed in captivity.  When they are under stress, they develop a condition called aspergillossis.  A fungus called aspergillus just explodes in the lungs of loons (and a few other birds) when they are under stress in captivity.  And it is almost always fatal.  So even if it were possible to do something like that, it would be totally counterproductive.

Let us just hope that the cleanup continues.  We still have 2 or 3 months before the migrating loons get down to the Gulf.  So a lot can still be done.  It is just unfortunate that so much was allowed to make it to shore where it is doing the most damage.  However, for our loons, they will not spend much time either on shore or along the shore.  So that is the good news.

However, the big unknown is how they will react to whatever oil is still in the water.

One of the little known facts is that most birds that are 'rescued' and washed with soap ultimately still die in spite of all the well-intentioned efforts.

Now, we have gone from the news reports being that it is an unmitigated disaster that can't be reversed to "we don't know where the oil went".

Once again, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.  Neither as bad as they have been saying for the last several months nor as good as they seem to be saying now.

The reports the last few days are that 33% of the oil was recovered or disposed of but that the other 66-75% simply 'disappeared'.  I'm sorry, it did not 'simply disappear'.  Something happened to it and it is important for the future to more fully understand what that 'something' was.

I personally believe the earth and the oceans are much more capable of dealing with things that we give them credit for.  There are all kinds of microbes and little 'beasties' that actually love to eat oil.  After all, oil is simply another form of hydrocarbons like the hydrocarbons in your compost pile that microbes explode in and love to eat.  There is oil seeping from the bottom of the ocean all the time all around the world.  We just never see it and these little creatures take care of it.  Now I am not saying that the 'seepage' is the same magnitude in a concentrated area as this spill...but the earth is constantly seeping oil.  Totally apart from what man ever does.  The big unknown is how the earth deals with a large concentrated spill like this.

So the news that they are having trouble 'finding' the oil is very encouraging.  Much of it may have already been taken care of naturally.   But in my mind the jury is still way out on this yet.

This would also fit with something that I mentioned sometime back.  You will remember that everyone was very concerned about what would happen if a hurricane hit this area and stirred up the water and the oil.  I told you about hearing one of the chief meteorologists for The Weather Channel say that this could possibly even be a "good thing".  His feeling was that a hurricane would act like a giant mixmaster and break the oil up into smaller pieces that the microbes could digest more easily.

Let us hope that we have some VERY HAPPY microbes in the Gulf right now eating at the best buffet that they have ever had!

Also encouraging is that government inspectors have said that they are not seeing any of the oil show up in the Gulf seafood that they have examined.  Let us hope that continues since loons are almost exclusively fish and seafood eaters.

If that is true, that would be a huge plus for our loons when they come down to the Gulf this fall.  If there is no oil contamination showing up in the sea food, that is a very positive thing for our loons.

The other danger for the loons is if they get oil on their feathers.  That will destroy their insulation and waterproofing.  So those are probably the two biggest threats to loons.

The other unknown is how it has already affected the 3 years of immature loons who are still on the Gulf right now from previous hatches.  They are the ones who have faced the greatest threat so far.

But so far there is no firm data.  There is one report that I read a couple weeks ago that 17 dead loons have washed up on shore.  But there was no data that any of them were killed from the oil.  Apparently most of them were 'natural deaths'.  Once again, I am not saying that none of them have been killed by the oil.  We just need to be careful in our numbers.

One thing that you need to be cautious of is some of the reports that you will read over the next couple months.  There have been some reports that over 60,000 birds and animals have been killed from the oil spill.  At this point, I don't think that anyone knows the true number.

But the US Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to document every dead bird or animal from the Gulf Coast and every live animal that has evidence of oil.  So far that TOTAL in both categories is less than 5,000.  And of those, the majority of the dead birds and animals have not had any evidence of oil contamination.

So from the confirmed results so far, I am cautiously optimistic on several levels for our loons!

But that is one of the reasons for the research project that the USGS is doing.  From the satellite transmitters that we implanted and the data recorders, hopefully we will be able to get a more complete picture of the migration this fall and a better picture of what happens to the loons on the Gulf this winter.  The good part is that the loons in New England and eastern and western Canada should not be affected at all as they migrate to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

But for now, we can only wait and hope and watch and learn.

Thursday, July 22, 2010 11:46pm CDT

68 degrees   Starlit and thunder  Calm

I just came in a few minutes ago.  The loons out on the lake were calling their beautiful calls.

The moon is almost full.  The stars bright in the sky.  And flashes of lightening off to the west.  And muffled thunder.

A couple hours ago, I had gone down to the lake to wash my hands and arms and legs after doing a lot of work.

One of the loons was sitting only about a hundred feet beyond the end of the dock.  It was good to see him in so close.  He looked wonderful.

I went out to the end of the dock and sat with my feet in the water.

The loon did not move away.  He simply sat and watched me.  And I watched him.  And he watched me watching him.  

I started quietly calling to him to see if he would answer me.  Hoots and quiet wails.  Quiet so that the neighbors would not think I had completely lost my mind!

He didn't answer.  But he didn't swim away either.  We both just sat and enjoyed the moment.  Or at least I enjoyed the moment.

The whole sky above me was completely clear.  The full moon hung just above the trees.  The first stars started to twinkle as we sat there.  Off to the west was a high bank of dark clouds.  Occasionally there was a flash of lightening deep within the clouds.  The sun had set about half and hour before and darkness was quickly settling.  But this was still that magical time of twilight.

What could be more perfect than to add a loon close by on a lake of mirror.

He floated.  I sat.  Both of us content to just "be".  Both of us looking at each other.

What was he thinking?  The nesting platform floated close by.  Did he remember it?  Did he remember me?  Did he recognize me?

This went on for close to half an hour.  Finally I was having trouble making out his silhouette in the shadows of the darkness.  But he was still there.  

Another loon called from across the lake.  I wondered if he would answer.

He didn't answer.  He turned and looked that direction but made no move to swim away.

As I headed up to the house, he was still floating there.

But sometimes moments are too magical and magnificent for words!