Tuesday, April 26, 2011 6:23pm CDT

[Strangely, this post did not appear.  The system labeled it as a 'draft' and did not post it.  But here it is, better late than never.]

40 degrees  Rainy  Wind NE 18mph

If you think it looks cold on the LoonCam, you are right!

It is cold and windy.  This year winter just does not seem to want to loosen its grip.  

It has been raining most of the day and the wind just cuts through you.

As I write this, the loons are approaching the nest.  They don't seem to mind the cold or the waves that bounce them up and down constantly.

Tonight is not predicted to be much better.

In fact, during the night, this rain is supposed to turn to snow.  Yes, you heard it right....SNOW!

There should not be any significant accumulation but they are forecasting a slushy mix by morning.  2011, the winter that just would not quit.  But then it is supposed to be in the 70s by Thursday.

Welcome to Minnesota.  If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes!

The cold may slow the loons nesting down slightly but I do not expect by much.

I think they have taken ownership of the nest and everything is now in motion for a new nesting season.  In all liklihood, there are already two eggs starting to form inside the female's body.  And when it will be time to lay them, it will be time.  No matter what day of the week.  No matter what the weather is.

I would expect that she will lay the first egg sometime in the next week.

Once things start to happen, they happen pretty rapidly.

You have seen some slight nest building activity when they have been up on the platform.  But that is not yet serious nest building.  It is almost as if they are becoming comfortable with the nest once again and taking ownership of it.

But when we get close to the first egg being laid, she will become much more serious about building a true nest.  Moving material from all around her.  Making sure everything is just right.  Waiting for the arrival of the first egg which will call that nest home for the next 28 days.

It could happen tomorrow.

It could happen a week from now.

But now is not the time to miss a minute of this wonderful adventure with our beautiful loons.

Now is the time to twitter and tweet and facebook and instant message and my space and blog and email and telephone everyone you know and tell them to join you in watching this miracle unfold before their very eyes.  And to let your children's and granchildren's teachers know so that they can help the kids appreciate and understand what nature is providing all around them.

The stage is ready.  The audience takes their seats.   A hush falls over the audience.  The actors are waiting in the wings and making brief appearances  from behind the curtain.

Soon it will be showtime!

Some of you, especially in the Twin Cities area may be interested to know that KARE11 tv asked me if I would join them for their Saturday morning show.  A little while ago I got an email that said it will be in the 9:40am slot....although if you know television at all, that could change at a moment's notice.  But tune in if you get a chance.  For the rest of you around the world, if you cannot watch it live on line, they will probably provide a program link for the show.  See you then.

Monday, April 25, 2011 9:29pm CDT

58 degrees  Cloudy   Wind Calm

 

 

Well, I guess that 'working adventure' went reasonably well!

 

At least you have 'some' sound now, but I realize that you are still not getting good sound.  They will continue to work on it.  You are getting a small glimpse behind the scenes of all that the wonderful technicians at Broadband Minnesota go through to bring you this experience.

 

Some of you were able to hear a little bit of what I said when I was working by the nest.  Let me recap some of it for you.

 

I waited until I did not see the loons anywhere around.  Then I went out with the swimming raft and some buoys that I use to try to keep boats from coming too close to the nest.  

 

I brought out some other things to do on the nest as well.  

 

There is already at least one spider that has found the camera and has spun a web.  I have not had much luck in the past in foiling the spiders.  I have tried a little of everything including insecticides on the camera.  But they apparently wash off  in the rain.

 

This year I am trying a 'flea and tick collar' that I have wrapped around the camera.  Will it work?  I have no idea.  But it is worth a try!

 

I also put up some willow branches to try to keep the eagles from sweeping directly down on the nest.

 

While I was doing that, I could see the loons coming from way across the lake.  How they could see me and the fact that they immediately came over to investigate always amazes me.

 

What was gratifying to me was that they did not seem overly concerned or alarmed.  There not only were no alarm calls, there were no calls at all.  They swam nearby and just wanted to make sure they approved of whatever I was doing.  The most that they did to show any concern is what is called "splash diving" a few times.  Loons normally slip underwater silently.  In a "splash dive", they purposely make a splash just to let you know they are there.

 

So I hurried to put the bouys out, put the swimming raft in place and then headed for shore.

 

They followed me partway in to shore and then calmly swam off.  Apparently content that this 'intruder' was really of no danger and of no concern to them.

 

Even as I type this, there have been a few yodels and tremolos from out on the lake.  So there apparently is another pair of loons out there or at least one other loon that necessitates a territorial stand.

 

It is a beautiful sound as it echos across the lake in the stillness of a northern night.

 

It doesn't get much better than this.

 

 

Monday, April 25, 2011 4:52pm CDT

66 degrees   Sunny   Wind East 8mph

Yesterday was an absolutely spectacular Easter Sunday.  And today matches it.  Tonight and tomorrow there is a prediction of some rain.

The LoonCam is now live on both MNBound and Wild Earth tv!  Tell your family and friends and schools to join in this exciting adventure for this year.  Who can even predict what will happen?  But we will enjoy it and learn as we observe it together.

As you have already seen, the loons have been spending more and more time around and on the nest.  There have already been several matings.  Each time that they are on the nest and each mating increases the chances that they will use the nest this year and that we will once again be able to enjoy watching them.

There are still a couple things that I want to get done before they actually begin their nesting.  Things like attaching some willow branches to the platform to try to keep the eagles from swooping down on the nest directly.  Putting out the swimming platform and some buoys to try to keep boats from coming too close.  And a couple other things to help.

I will have to watch for times when the loons are not in the area to do this work in the next day or two.

So if you see some activity around the nest, that is what is happening.  You may see or hear a couple big splashes when I throw the buoys out, trying to get them out farther without having to go out too deep into the water.  The water is still painfully ice cold!

Since we have the microphone, I will try to explain what I am doing if I am near the nest.

So gather 'round and enjoy the show as we welcome our loons back for 2011!

Good Friday, April 22, 2011 7:43pm CDT

 

 

40 degrees   Raining   Wind NW3mph

 

 

This continues to be a 'typical' Minnesota spring.

 

There is nothing typical about it!

 

Last week the temperature finally made it into the 70's.

 

This week, on Wednesday morning, we had about 3 inches of new snow!

 

This have continued to progress on getting the nest and the camera ready for you.  And we are ever so close.

 

Yesterday I was able to put the nest in the water.  The great technicians from Minnesota Broadband and Wild Earth tv have continued their work to get everything ready to go.  On Monday night they installed a new camera.  They truly deserve our thanks for all their hard work.

 

And right now I am watching the video from the nest!

 

Now all we need is for you to be able to see it live and for us to have some loons.  We are close on both fronts.

 

I mentioned that last week I had seen 6 or 7 loons on the lake.  That is more than we need.  About 4 or 5 loons more than we need.  But then over the last week I have not been able to do a lot of observing and when I have been able to watch, I have not seen much of any loons.  The cold windy weather and the waves on the lake make it difficult to spot any loons.

 

As I said, yesterday I was able to get the nesting platform put out into the lake.

 

Surprisingly, within an hour and a half after putting it out there, a pair of loons  showed up.  And even more surprisingly, both of them immediately got up on the nest.  They were only there for a couple minutes but they definitely seemed to be familiar with it and comfortable in getting up on it.

 

After a couple minutes they went back in the water and swam away.

 

Today I have been gone much of today but when I have been home, I have not seen them anywhere around.

 

Until tonight.

 

Around 5pm I saw them swim up to the nest and get up on the platform!  Both of them.

 

And then they mated.

 

So it appears that they are ready to make up for lost time and for a late spring.

 

After only a minute of two, they went back in the water and started to swim away.  But then one of them, I assume the female, got back up on the nest.  She immediately started trying out different spots and then actually started a little nest building building activity for about 5 minutes!

 

So that is very encouraging signs that they are already taking ownership of the nest!

 

I have not seen them now for a couple hours....but they are no doubt out there someplace.

 

And hopefully very soon, the switch will soon be flipped and you can watch every detail.  Don't get too concerned about the time.  It usually takes a couple weeks from their first approach to the nest before they get serious about nesting. 

 

I apologize that I have not been able to give you much information for the last week.  Between a couple funerals and some of my dearest friends (who I have not seen for 20 years!) being here from Washington state and the 'winter weather', I have not had much time.  But as we get closer to actual nesting activity, I will try to update you regularly.

 

I still have a few finishing touches to put on the nest and if they go 'live' before I get them done, you may be able to observe that first hand as well.

 

So if you are fortunate enough to live in an area with loons, keep watching for 'your loons' to return as well!  Sometimes those of us in areas that have loons forget how special it is and what a privilege we are blessed with to be able to enjoy these magnificent birds with the haunting call of the north.  For the rest of you who do not live where loons live, it is a privilege to bring you an 'up-close-and-personal' look at our loons!

 

Enjoy it.  And share it with your family and friends and with your children's school teachers!

 

And to all of you, I wish you a very Happy Easter!  Or if you celebrate Passover, a blessed Passover season.  Enjoy it with your family and friends.  Cherish them and let them know you love them.

 

 

 

Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:15pm CDT

 

40 degrees  Partly Cloudy  Wind 7mph north

 

 

Spring is all of a sudden slipping away.

 

There has been a cold wind off the lake all day and there is even a prediction of some snow for Friday evening and Saturday morning.  But the loons seem not to mind it at all.  They are used to the cold water and I think they can deal with the cold even better than they can deal with heat.

 

Yesterday afternoon I had to get in the water to do somethings and I can tell you the loons deal with the cold water better than me.  It was downright painful!

 

Yesterday afternoon I also saw two pair of loons and one single loon on the lake.

 

Then last night I saw 3 different pairs.  So I am not sure if there are 6 or 7 loons on the lake.  But there are more than we need.  Hopefully some of them are just moving through and that we will not have a lot of fighting for territory.

 

The thought keeps going through my mind wondering if some of these loons are the young from several years ago.  But there is no way of telling for sure so it can only be conjecture.

 

This afternoon there were a number of yodel calls.  As you will remember, a yodel is very much a territorial call and is made only by the male.  I could see two loons in the area where the calls were coming from but they did not seem to be fighting.  By the time I was able to get the binoculars and look, I could only see the two loons who were swimming together.

 

One of the times they yodeled, I saw an eagle flying over the lake and I am fairly certain that yodel was an alarm call about the eagle.

 

We are still working on getting everything up and running and ready to go.  We have live picture going to South Africa and they are working on their end of things to make sure we can bring everything to you live.

 

This afternoon I got another email from Carol Jansky at St John's University about "Big John".....

"After 5:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon, Big John moved to Sagatagan.  I checked Sag yesterday (Tuesday)  and found one loon (slender neck) by the islands while Big John was still on Gemini.  Sagatagan was still mostly black ice--the ice had retreated from the shores 5-10 meters and there were a few cracks in the main part of the lake.  Today, the ice has retreated much more and when I checked at noon I saw Big John and another loon swimming together.  I'm pretty sure that it is his mate (or at least who's mating with this year) because they did a little bit of coordinated splash diving.  He would hoot for her if he surfaced first which was often the case.  (There was actually quite a bit of hooting going on.)  I watched from the beach (north end of the lake)  and when they neared me, Big John yodeled twice.  (I guess for my benefit, there was no other loon there.)  The first yodel had 3 repeating phrases, the second only had 2 repeating phrases.  The female interrupted him with a short tremelo.
It is good to have him back!"

 

Tonight one of the Twin Cities television stations did a short story about the return of the loons and about "Big John" in particular.  They interviewed Carol as part of it and also Carrol Henderson from the Minnesota DNR.  You may want to check on their website to see if they have a link to the story.  It was on WCCO-TV, Channel 4 in Minneapolis.

 

I will try to keep you up to date as things progress.

 

But just know that loons are on the move all across the country!