Tuesday, May 3, 2011 8:40am CDT

[For some reason this mornings blog entry did not post correctly...so here it is again.]

 

36 degrees   Sunny    Wind NW 7mph
 
 
The clouds and rain have left.
 
The sky is  stunning blue and the sun shines brightly.
 
Today promises more seasonal temperatures.  We might even get back to average, which at this time of year is 65 degrees F.
 
While we wait for our loons to decide if it is time to lay an egg or not, I thought this might be a good time to review the different calls of the Common Loon.  Calls which you will hear from time to time on the LoonCam, especially late at night. 
 
There are 4 main calls that a Common Loon (Gavia immer) makes:
1.  The wail.
2.  The tremolo.
3.  The yodel
4.  The hoot
 
When you know and understand these 4 calls, you have a great insight into what is going on at any moment simply by hearing the loon calls.
 
When you can 'speak loon', it adds so much to your appreciation of them when you hear them calling in the wild.  As you sit at a cabin or a wilderness campsite on vacation and hear that haunting cry echo across a northern lake on a still wilderness evening, you will know what the loons are talking about. 
 
I tend to divide the 4 calls into 2 'good' calls and 2 'bad' calls.  Let me explain.
 
First of all, there are really no 'good' or 'bad' calls.  There are simply calls that loons use to communicate with each other.
 
But I call them good and bad based on the message they convey.  The 'good calls' are calls that are simply communication.  The 'bad calls' are calls that a loon uses to express alarm or concern.
 
 
The wail is a 'good call' that a loon simply uses to communicate with another loon to tell them where they are and to ask where the other loon is.  'I am here, where are you'.  It is the long haunting call that evokes such emotions and memories as it echoes across a quiet lake at sunset.
 
The wail is made by both the male and female loon.
 
 
The tremolo is a 'bad call' only because it expresses alarm from a loon.  The loon is concerned about something.  It is upset.  It senses danger.  That danger can come from another loon, from an eagle, from a human, from any number of sources.  It is the loon saying, "I am scared.  I am upset.  I am concerned.  I don't know what is going on but I don't like it."
 
The tremolo is made by both the male and female.
 
 
The yodel is a 'bad call' that is a territorial call made only by the male.
 
This is probably the most extreme of all the calls of the loon.  It is a male saying to all other male loons within hearing range "This is MY territory!  Stay out!  I will defend this territory.  And you enter my territory at your own risk.  Now LEAVE!"
 
 
The hoot is a 'good call'.  It is the quietest and most intimate the 4 calls.  Very few people ever get close enough to a loon to even hear the hoot.
 
The hoot is used to communicate when two loons are close to each other.  Or especially for an adult loon to communicate to a chick as they swim together.  It is a very quiet call and so most people never get a chance to be close enough to a loon to hear it.
 
So now you know the four basic calls of a loon and know what they are saying when you hear them.
 
I have to admit that I enjoyed the tremolo and yodel much more before I knew that they were alarm calls and that it was a loon telling me that it was very concerned.  But knowing the call has added so much to my understanding of what is going on when I hear the tremolo or especially the yodel.
 
There are a couple other loon calls that have not been well documented or not documented at all.
 
There is a "mewing" call.  It is not well documented at all.In fact, if you have been watching the LoonCam just this year, you have heard more of this call than have any researchers!
 
The 'mewing' call is a very quiet call that has been referenced a few times in the old literature.  But it has never been added to the list of the 4 calls of the loon.  I would submit that it is a separate call and deserves its own category.
 
The mewing call is made by apparently both loons, but for especially the female, while they are near or on the nest.  It sounds somewhat like a cat mewing.  I do not have a good recording of it to give you but maybe one of our wonderful viewers who are so good at capturing videos and sounds may be able to capture it for me.
 
The full meaning of the mewing call is yet to be understood.  But it does seem to be related to nesting activity, although one cannot be sure that it is not used when the loons are away from the nest.  But it is a very quiet and intimate call...even moreso than the hoot.
 
There is yet one more call that I have not heard described in any any scholarly literature...or any literature anywhere.  I have never even heard anyone talk about it.  But once again, if you have watched the LoonCam, you have heard what no researcher has ever heard or studied.  I believe that it is new and unique to the LoonCam and has never been documented before.
 
It is a call somewhat related to the mewing call but yet is different.  For lack of any other description, I would refer to  it as the 'invitation to mate' call.  It is given by the female but I cannot say it is exclusive to the female although I believe it is.
 
The 'invitation to mate' call is a rapid staccato call that is similar to the tone of the mewing.  But it is staccato and not drawn out like the mewing call.
 
In numerous times that I have heard it, seen the reaction and documented it, almost immediately after the female gives the 'invitation to mating' call, the male comes up on the nest and mating activity ensues.
 
Both the 'mewing call' and the 'invitation to mating call' need much more study and research.  But they seem to be 'new' calls that have never been fully documented or studied before.  
 
And you are a first hand observer of some of the new information about loons that is coming from the LoonCam!
 
 
If you have any questions or comments, send them to LoonCam@yahoo.com.  Because of the volume of emails, I probably will not be able to personally but I will try to answer questions in the blog.
 

 

 

Monday, May 2, 2011 1:49pm CDT

 

37 degrees   Cloudy   Wind 9mph NW

 

On a cold windy cloudy [non-spring] day the wait of the faithful continues.

Today has brought rain, snow flurries and even a little hail.

The loons visit the nest with increasing frequency.  Today we have once again even had a mating.

Each visit brings increased hope.  But each time she gets off the nest, hope diminishes.

One of these times will be "the time".

When it happens, it will probably happen with relatively great speed.

Watch for her to sort of 'climb up' the side of the nest.  You will see body movements as if there is something going on deep inside.  Which there is.  A huge egg is making its way through her body.

She will probably slightly spread her wings to steady herself.

The end of the egg will appear for a short time.  And then all of a sudden, in one quick, smooth motion the egg will 'pop out'.

At that point she will probably stay on the nest for a short time while she recovers from the extreme effort of laying such a big egg and then she will probably go into the water.

As I write this, she is once again on the nest.  Will this be the time?  Or is this just yet one more "visit"?

 

 

Sunday, May 1, 2011 7:45am CDT

 
30 degrees   Cloudy  Wind 15mph NW
 
 
On a chilly and cloudy first of May, we wait.
 
Just when we think that behaviors of the loon indicate that we are very close to egg laying ..... well, we are shown how little we are in control of anything that happens.
 
We can wish it.  We can think it.
 
But the loons are in control of when or if eggs are laid.  And one has to wonder how much even they are in control of it.  Or how much of what happens just happens.
 
So once again, we are left to wonder.
 
Will this be the day that the first egg is laid?
What is happening inside the female loon that we can only think and wonder about?
 
All the signs continue to be positive and say that the pair of loons definitely are giving all the signs that they will once again this year lays eggs and hopefully successfully raise a new generation of loons.  But it is completely out of our control.
 
We can only pull up a chair and sit back, relax and be witnesses to the miracles about to unfold before our very eyes!
 
 

Friday, April 29, 2011 9:53pm CDT

 
49 degrees  Cloudy  Wind Calm
 
 
Most of today was a spectacular, warm, sunny day. 
 
The first such day in some time.  Few and far they have been  this spring.
 
This evening, there was some more rain but right now it is a stunning calm evening.
 
The sounds of spring peepers.  Once in a while a Canadian goose making its presence known.
 
But most special of all.....the call of the loons.  Wafting across the lake.  And then answered by another loon somewhere on the lake.
 
There obviously is still one other male on the lake because there have been some  yodels back and forth, which are calls only made by the males.
 
But I have not seen the abundance of 7 loons that I saw a week or more ago.  Hopefully most of those were just passing through and have now moved further north as more and more lakes become ice free.  Our loons do not need the competition nor the distraction.
 
This afternoon, our loons were challenged for their territory.  And as if there was any question, they made it clear that this was THEIR nesting platform.
 
A swan came swimming by and went to check out the platform.  But before he could even get there, where the loons came from  I am not sure.  But in no uncertain terms they made it known this was not going to be his nest.  They unceremoniously chased him away.  He went half flying, half walking on water while me made whatever sound that is that swans make.  Similar to a honk of a goose but nicer.
 
He sat looking at the nest.  And at the loons.  And then started swimming toward the nest once more.
 
Once again the loons confronted him and once again chased him back.
 
He did this three or four times before he finally gave up and swam away.
 
But in the midst of all this, three geese were swimming by.  They must have decided that while the loons were occupied with the swan, it would be the perfect time for them to also check out the nest.
 
But the loons were not to be outflanked.  They turned and also confronted the geese.  A swan on once side and three geese on the other.  It almost sounds like a nursery rhyme....I saw a swan...Three geese came swimming in!
 
Each time the geese tried to get close to the nest, the loons would make sure that they knew there would be none of that. 
 
At one point, I think one of the geese got stabbed underwater by one of the loons.  For he suddenly leaped straight up out of the water and then went flying/running across the surface of the water until he was a safe distance away....complaining in goose epithets the whole way.
 
Soon both the swan and the geese gave up in their attempt to 'assault the castle' and they moved on.  One, one direction and three the other.
 
There are times that it looks like the loon is going to lay an egg this time for sure when she is on the nest.  There has been a lot of the "mewing" call from the female while she has been on the nest.  This is a call that is not well documented at all and is not included in the 4 major calls of loons.  Until last year with this webcam, no one had been able to hear it consisitently or to document it as much as we did in that one season of the LoonCam!
 
It would not have surprised me that she would have laid an egg today.  But so far, nothing.
 
But do not despair.  I am increasingly confident that we will see eggs laid.  Most probably in the next couple days.  But how do you predict such a thing?  Last year the first egg was laid on Wednesday, May 5 at 9:24am and the second egg was laid on Friday, May 7 at 9:12pm.
 
This was a little later than we have seen most years.
 
Now is not the time to miss a minute of the action.
 
The only thing more exciting than actually seeing one of the eggs laid is when one of the chicks hatches.
 
I try to scan through some of the chat room but most of the time I am not able to read most of it.  If you have a question that you would like an answer to, send it to LoonCam@yahoo.com.  Because of the volume of emails I will not be able to answer each one personally, but I will try to give some of the answers to your questions in this blog.
 
And remember, for those of you in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, I will see you tomorrow morning at 9:20am on KARE11 television.  For those of you scattered all over, check the www.KARE11.com website to see if they carry it live or if they post a video of it.
 

Friday, April 29, 2011 5:44am CDT

 

30 degrees   Clear   Wind Calm

 

The morning light graces the eastern sky.

Along the eastern horizon, there is a combination of hues.  Pinks.  Light blues.  Golds.  Just a sliver of light that begins to drive the darkness to the western sky.

The pair of loons sits near the nest.  Silhouetted against a perfectly calm surface of the lake.

It is a magical time.

A beaver swims by the nesting platform.  

But fortunately he seems not to even give the frost-covered nest a passing glance.  He continues to swim and disappears off to the side, seemingly unaware of either the stage or the drama that will happen on it in the coming weeks.

As if on cue, the two loons approach the platform and one of them 'mews'.  

The beauty of this great cathedral overarches this scene.  Even though there may not be a choir or an orchestra, the choir of the morning song of birds awakening rivals any royal choir anywhere in the world.

The nest sits empty but welcoming, seemingly ready for its most precious charge.

Will today be the day that the first egg is laid?

It could very well be.  If not today, then soon.

Over the last day or two, the loons have spent increasing amounts of time near the nest.  It is an encouraging sign that things are rapidly building to a climax.

So with great anticipation, we wait.

On this beautiful spring morning, the tremolos of our loons echo across the lake.

Oh, if only we could bottle moments like this and keep them forever!