Thursday, May 26, 2011 8:54pm CDT

52 degrees    Partly Cloudy   Wind  Calm

It is sunset.

The northwestern sky is painted with muted pinks and oranges.

The high scattered clouds are a deep purple.

The night hawks are just coming out and flying over with their distinctive 'peeeeekk'.

The loon left the nest a few minutes ago.  There were a couple wails and a couple tremolos.  Then more.

There is no obvious cause for any alarm.  No fishermen.  No canoists.  No pontoons.  No people or dogs down by the shore that I see.

The mate comes swimming in from somewhere out in the lake.

More wails.  More tremolos.  Then a number of yodels.

Still no obvious reason.  Other than maybe just wanting to make know to everyone that they are here.

They swim together for a while.  Then one of them starts his take off flight.  And the other one follows.

As they swim over the lake, they are both doing flying tremolo calls.  It is basically a tremolo but a little different.  I have come to call it a "flying tremolo".  I realize I did not mention it when I listed the basic calls.  I will have to go back and add it.  I don't know how to describe it.  It is a tremolo.  Very similar to the tremolos that you are familiar with.  But there are subtle differences.

When you have listened to so many calls, you know it immediately.  You know to look in the air to see the loon rather than loon on the lake.

They made several laps around the lake all the time doing their flying tremolo.

I am not sure what the reason was.  Maybe they just needed to go to the gym after sitting on the nest for so many hours.  They needed to take a couple laps around the lake to exercise their wings.

It seemed like it was just a flight of joy.

Whatever the reason, after a few laps around the lake they both landed near the nest....in their characteristic "skid landing" or "controlled crash"!

There still was no hurry to get back on the nest even with the chilly night air settling in.

After 13 minutes off the nest as I write this, one of the loons climbs back on the nest and goes through the ritual of rolling and adjusting the eggs, and then the characteristic wiggle as the loon settles on the nest just perfectly.

Once again, the eggs are warm and safe.

And the loon is settled in for darkness to come.

We now count in days and hours for the arrival of the chicks....not the weeks that we have been counting before.  The suspense builds.

All the questions about the eggs flood in.  Are they fertile?  Are they developing?  What does the chick look like now?  Obviously the heart is beating.  The nerves are in place.  The big feet are already big.  Is the black down already there in some form?  How about the eyes?  The beak?  So many questions.  So few definitive answers.

But the whole process is almost overwhelming.

Creation of a little chick.  Creation of life where there was none just a few weeks ago.  LIFE!  The miracle of life itself!  I want to see the world's smartest scientist create a little loon chick on his own!  My background and training is as a scientist and engineer.  I wouldn't know where to begin to engineer and create a little loon.  Let alone one that could live and grow on its own.

Things too wonderful to behold or especially to understand.  So we just stand back in awe of this creation.

This weekend when our little loons may very well hatch is Memorial Day weekend.

The start of the summer season.  The time when Minnesotans 'head up to the lake' en masse.

The first really big weekend of boating and fishing and recreation on our beloved 10,000 lakes.

The first big challenge for the loons.

This is a good time to remind ourselves and to remind our friends and family about "loon etiquiette".  Be aware of and on the lookout for loons.

If you see a loon on a nest, we all want to get close and look.  Get 'close' with binoculars.  Usually if you stay at least 300 feet away from them, there will be very little stress or impact.  If you see the loon go into 'hangover position' on the nest, just slowly and quietly back away and the loon will soon return to normal.

If you are in a speedboat, be aware of loons swimming, especially if they have chicks.  The adult will usually be able to dive out of danger but the chick will not.  Many chicks are killed this way and even some adult loons are killed by boats.

By following these simple rules of 'loon etiquette', we will be able to enjoy loons for many years to come and pass them safely down to the next generations.

This may also be a good time to talk about some basic things to look for that will signal hatching.  I will try to go into more detail in the next couple days.

The first clue to look for is that the loon is 'sitting lighter' or 'sitting higher' on the nest.  Not snuggled down into the nest bowl like they usually are.

The next thing to watch for is for "flinches".  A wing may flinch or jerk.  The whole body may flinch.  They are reacting to the movement of the egg and the chick under them.

So watch for some of those signs a few days from now.

It gets closer.  It moves faster.  

It gets more exciting!

Questions or Comments?   LoonCam@yahoo.com

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 10:02pm CDT

[For some reason this did not post correctly last night so here it is again.  Sorry.]

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 10:02pm CDT 

POSTED ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011 AT 10:02PM

55 degrees  Clear  Wind 5mph NE

 

Today the loons have dealt with wind and waves.  Even whitecaps.

 

They have dealt with worse but today the cold wind just did not let up all day long.

 

Unbelievably tonight there is a frost and freeze warning for far northern Minnesota!  We may get down into the mid-30s tonight but hopefully no frost here.

 

However we can be thankful that we have not been having the tornados that have been in OK, MO, AR, IN and other states in the last couple days and the high death toll.  Our hearts go out to those people who are so devastated.

 

Other than the wind, the worst that the loons have had to deal with today has been an eagle that has been fishing on the lake several times today.  It has not come near the loon but it has been enough for it to be very concerned and to go into hangover position without leaving the nest.

 

The eagles are definitely a threat to baby loons.  In fact, they can be a threat to loons that are many weeks old.  There have been reports of loons preying on adult loons but confirmed cases of them actually taking an adult loon are rare.

 

The eagles would not be a primary predator of the eggs but potentially could take or damage them if they are left unguarded.  Gulls, crows, ravens, raccoon [especially raccoon], skunks and mink would be more likely to eat an egg if it is left exposed.  So if people or eagles or anything scare a loon off the nest, the eggs do become vulnerable to predators.

 

And right now with what is hopefully going on inside that egg with a new little chick growing, it would be a tragedy to lose the egg.

 

Yesterday I promised that I would explain why loons are so clumsy on land.  Whereas they are so graceful in the water, they are almost helpless on land.  You have seen some of that clumsiness as they get up on the platform and 'walk' to the nest.

 

I am going to ask you to do something and follow along as you read this. 

 

Hold your arm out in in front of you.

Spread your fingers.  Think of your arm in terms of a chicken leg.  [I know it sounds silly but I think it will really help you understand and remember why loons are clumsy on land.]

 

Your spread fingers and your hand are the foot of the chicken.  Your forearm is the lower bony part of the chicken's leg.  And your biceps are the drumstick of the chicken.

 

Now move your arm all around.  You can move it very freely can't you.  Pretend you are a chicken walking and you can see how their leg moves and how they can walk easily.

 

Now hold your "drumstick" tight up against your body.  Do not let it move away from your body.

 

Do the same thing you did with the "chicken walk".  Keep your upper arm tight against your body.  You can only move the lower part of your arm and your hand and fingers.  It is a whole different feeling, isn't it?

You don't have nearly the mobility nor can you 'walk like a chicken' any more.

 

This is what makes a loon so clumsy on land.  For you see, the whole drumstick portion of the loon's leg i is totally encased within the body skin.  They cannot move it away from their body.  Now you can see and feel how hard it is for a loon to walk on land.

 

Because the upper part of their leg is encased within body skin, their leg actually is positioned at the extreme back end of their body.  While it makes them clumsy on land, it makes them very powerful swimmers.  They are able to swim very fast and they are very maneuverable underwater, which is important for them to be able catch fast, darting fish that can change directions on a dime.

 

Also helping them to swim are their large feet.  No, HUGE feet.

 

Someone has figured out that in comparison to body size, a loon's foot is comparable to you wearing a 46 Triple R shoe!

 

That is the disadvantage of them trying to walk on land.  But it is a great advantage to make them powerful swimmers.

  

Inside those eggs are hopefully two little chicks developing with impossibly big feet.

 

Now is the time to encourage your family and friends to join you in watching.  We are getting close to the hatch date.

 

The "normal" hatch date for the first egg should be Wednesday night of next week....one week from right now.  But I would guess that the first egg will hatch maybe a day or two before that.  This is not a time to miss any of the action.

 

There is nothing as special as getting that first glimpse of an impossibly cute loon chick peeking out from under its parent's wing and looking around at a big new world for the first time.

 

Don't miss it.

 

 

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam@yahoo.com

 

Larry Backlund | Post a Comment | Print Article | Email Article

Tuesday, May 24, 2011 10:45pm CDT

62 degrees  Partly Cloudy  Wind 4mph NNE

The loons have had a fairly quiet and uneventful day.

After all the rain of the weekend, it was nice to have some sunshine.

In fact this afternoon while I was doing some planting, I just stopped, looked around and drank it in.  I said to myself 'Does it get much better than this?

There were some of the white puffy clouds against a blue sky.  The kind of clouds that I can remember as a kid wishing that I could go up there and just bounce around on them.  I knew that they would be soft and bouncy just like a marshmallow or a big cotton ball!  Ahhh the things a kid's dreams are made of!

There was a little breeze.  Not too much.  Not too little.  Just the right  amount.  And comfortable temperature.  Not too hot.  Not too cold.  Just right.

Apple trees in bloom.  And pears.  And plums.  And rhododendrons.

The silhouette of a loon sitting on its nest.  How could it get any better?

For many years, that silhouette of the loon on the nest has become almost a touchstone.  The first thing I check in the morning.  The last thing I check at dusk.  The first place I look whenever I come home.

But the days they are there are all too fleeting.  We barely have a week left before the expected hatching dates of the chicks.  And then within a day or two they are gone.  Off to explore their new wide world of water.

The two chicks will usually hatch within a day or so of each other.  They will stay on the nest for a day or so and then they follow their parents into the lake and swim away.

They generally stay in the same area of the lake where the nest is for the first week or two.  But seldom do they come back to the nest.  I will leave the cam on for a little while after they have left for you to hopefully catch a glimpse of them.  But I do not want to hold out unrealistic hope that you will see them up close.  That will also give some of you a chance to 'break the bond with the nest'!  Which is hard to do at times.  Only after that will I shut the cam down for the year.

But I will try to periodically update the blog to let you know what is happening with them.

Young loons will be fed exclusively by the parents for the first several weeks of their life.  Gradually they will learn how to fish and try it once in a while.  But they will still accept food from the parents as long as the parents will give them food.  It is not until they are about 11 to 13 weeks old that they really start to become independent of the parents.  This is also about the time that they try to take their first flights.

They still do not have the black and white plumage of an adult loon at this point.  They are a drab borwnish gray which they will keep for the next several years before they get their first spectacular black and white plumage.

But the first couple weeks is the time when they are so cute.  The "awwwwwww" moments!  The times when they climb up and ride on the back of the adult.

This riding on the back of the adult is believed to have a couple of advantages.

First it helps protect them from predators both from above and below.

From below it helps protect the chick from northerns and muskies and bass and snapping turtles.

From above, from eagles and gulls and other birds of prey.

But who has not been stopped and captivated by a picture of a little black loon riding on the back of a parent and been filled with warm fuzzies?

I mentioned that we had torrential rains over the weekend.  The lake level has come up significantly.  This is a perfect illustration of the advantage of a floating nesting platform like the one you are watching.

Loons normally build their nests very close to the edge of the water.  The reason for that is that they are almost completely helpless on land [I will maybe explain why in the next day or two].

When the level of the water rises like this, many loon nests are lost because of the rising water.

Or loon nests can also be lost because of large wakes from speedboats that can just wash right over the nest and destroy it or wash the eggs out of the nest.

But with a floating nesting platform like this, the nest can rise or lower with the level of the water.  And the loon is completely safe.

Loons do not seem to mind the rocking motion of a floating nest like this at all.  After all, they are normally bobbing up and down on the waves out on the lake all the time.  Plus being a floating nest away from shore it gives added protection from land based predators.

Yesterday afternoon some of you were watching when the loon let out a cry and literally bolted off the nest and halfway walked across the water as it frantically beat its wings.

What scared the loon was an eagle that was looking for a meal of fish.  But the loon did not know that the eagle had spotted a fish.  All it knew was that there was an eagle flying high overhead, which caused it concern, that all of a sudden was diving directly down on the nest.

I watched as the eagle slightly folded back its wings and started plunging toward the lake.  Its legs and talons were fully extended in attack mode.  As it plunged downward it moved its wings to 'rock back and forth' to rapidly lose altitude.  It looked like it was heading straight for the loon.

And the loon apparently thought the same thing because it went off the nest in a panic.

But the eagle swooped down on the surface of the water not very far from the nest.  As it started to rise again, it held a fish in its talons.  This had been a successful fishing trip!

If we can make it safely through the next few days, hopefully we will see two new loon chicks.

The first egg is due to hatch on Wednesday night, June 1st.  But if I had to guess, I think it might hatch a day or two earlier than that.  But then I have never been very good at being able to predict what they are going to do.

So the only way to know for sure is to watch along with all the rest of us.

Encourage your  kid's or grandkid's teachers to use this as a wonderful teaching tool for their students.

Because these special moments never last long enough!

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam@yahoo.com

Sunday, May 22, 2011 10:18pm CDT

 

60 degrees    Cloudy    Wind  1 mph  SW

 

 

This has been another very eventful and wet day in the life of our loons.

 

There have been torrential downpours.

One of my neighbors said he had measured 7 1/2 inches in his rain gauge between yesterday and today!

 

The rain just can't seem to stop.  But more importantly, once again today severe thunderstorms and tornadoes were bouncing all over state.  Unfortunately there has been severe damage in areas of Minneapolis as well as other communities.  Sadly one man from out of state was killed in his car when a large tree fell on it!

 

Even with the damage and death it is no where as bad as many areas of the country have suffered this spring.

 

But once again today our loons lucked out and all the severe weather went all around them.  They were in the calm 'eye of the storm' and did not have to contend with severe wind but they did sit through a number of very heavy rainstorms and a lot of lightning and thunder.

 

But they stayed on the nest during the heaviest parts of the rain.

 

At dusk tonight, the loon and the nest floated on a beautiful sea of shimmering quicksilver.

 

But even now as I am writing, there was a wail from out in the dark.  It sounded like it was fairly close to the nest.  Then the loon on the nest answered with an ear piercing yodel!  So it is the male on the nest again tonight.

 

After 4 yodels from out on the lake and 3 answers from on the nest, the male left the nest to go out to meet the loon who had challenged him.

 

A symphony of yodels and tremolos and wails bounced back and forth across the lake from all directions.  It is beautiful if you don't know what the calls mean.  Even if you do know, it is beautiful but it also causes concern because you know that this is a confrontation between 2 pairs of loons.

 

One of the loons finally returns to the nest after about 24 minutes off the nest for the confrontation.  Anytime they are off the nest concerns me.  But it is relatively warm and so this amount of time should not hurt the eggs.

 

In fact, if there are chicks developing inside the eggs, they may be close to the point where they can generate some of their own heat.

 

We are rapidly approaching the time when things move fast and when they get real exciting.

 

If your family and friends have not started watching yet, now is the time to call them, email them, tweet them, Facebook them and use every other means to let them know now is the time to start watching.

 

From the "official" incubation time for loon eggs, the first egg should hatch Wednesday night, June 1st.

 

But .... and this is a big 'but' with a lot of disclaimers .... if I had to guess, I would guess that it might hatch a day or two earlier than that!  So it could even hatch on Memorial Day.

 

And then the moments are so fleeting!

For those of you who have asked, the loon chicks leave the nest within a day or two of hatching, usually never to return to the nest.  From that point on they are truly water birds.

 

The 2 eggs were laid 1 1/2 days apart but they will probably hatch closer together than that.  It is something called 'catch up', where the second egg sometimes hatches quicker than the first egg.  There are some biologists who say that they chicks actually communicate with each other while they are still in the egg.

 

There are so many things that we do not know nor understand.  Now if only we had a microphone where we could listen to the chicks inside the eggs talking to each other!

 

A loon chick is called "precocious" meaning that it is able to swim within a very short time after hatching.  Usually they might stay on the nest for about a day or so, and then they are gone.

 

So your chance to see the hatching and the little black loon chick with the white breast and the stubby wings and the big feet is so fleeting.  If you miss it, you miss it.  There are no 'do overs' or long extended times of the chicks being on the nest where we can watch them.

 

So get ready for the BIG miracle that is about to happen.

 

This is 'reality tv' that beats anything you will ever see anywhere else.

 

 

Questions or Comments?   LoonCam@yahoo.com

 

Saturday, May 21, 2011 8:42pm CDT

 

59 degrees   Thunderstorms   Wind  3mph E

 

 

Have  you had enough drama for one season yet?

 

After an all-night rain and heavy rain this morning, late afternoon turned into a beautiful, quiet, sunny blue sky day.

 

But then tonight as if out of no where, numerous severe thunderstorms and tornadoes developed over a broad section of the state!

 

As we say in Minnesota, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.  [I am sure some of you in other states say the same thing.]

 

Tornadoes and large damaging hail were heading toward the lake.

 

One tornado was confirmed not very many miles away.

 

But once again thank God nothing severe hit our loons.

 

I had a couple people tell me that we had hail but if we did, I missed it.  I was on the phone with my brother during much of the storm and we were tracking the storm on radar online to see how close it was going to come to each of our houses.

 

But the loon sat firm all through the rain and kept the eggs warm and dry...although dry is not all that important to the eggs.  The loon brings quite a bit of water every time it gets back on the nest.  That added moisture may actually help the eggs.  If you have ever hatched duck eggs, some people recommend misting the eggs once in a while.

 

So a little moisture and even rain may not harm the eggs at all.

 

But then several yodels almost blew my speakers out!

 

That answered which loon was on the nest.  It was the male since the male is the only one that yodels.

 

That is somewhat unusual to see the male actually yodel while he is on the nest.

 

There were other yodels from somewhere out on the lake and that is obviously what he was reacting to and what he was answering.

 

Then he left the nest!

 

That is the disadvantage of having another pair of loons on the same lake.  They may draw each other off their nests and the conflicts could affect the hatching of the eggs.

 

When I looked out across the lake, I could not see the other male that was yodeling even though I could hear him.  The male swam out to another loon that was obviously the female.  They swam around for a number of minutes - although I didn't time it, I would guess they were off the nest about 10 minutes during the rain.

 

I am probably like many of you.  I know I need to trust their instincts.  But when they are off the nest, especially in the rain, everything in me screams, 'Get back here!  Don't you know you have 'little ones' that are depending on you?!

 

But then one of them came back to the nest, did the traditional egg roll and settled on the eggs.

 

Once again the lightening and the thunder and the rain are picking up.  But the radar is not showing anything severe.  Most of the severe weather is well beyond us.  Hopefully this will be just a 'garden variety' thunderstorm with nothing severe.  Although we have had enough rain for one day!

 

Earlier today the loon spent a lot of time in full hangover position.  I am not sure what that was about.  There were no boats close by.  There were no people along the shore.  I even looked for eagles and could not see any flying anywhere.

 

The loon kept in the hangover posture even though there did not appear to be any danger.

 

Sometimes they see and feel things that we can only wonder and speculate about.  And sometimes there are no explanations that make any sense to us.  But apparently something makes sense to the loons.

 

But for now, all is calm on the nest once again.

 

We can only hope that it stays that way for the next week or so.

 

Because in a little over a week we should see the first little loon chick peek out from under the wing and take in the wonder of a big world he has never seen before!

 

 

Questions or Comments?   LoonCam@yahoo.com

 

[For some reason this did not post correctly last night so here it is again.  Sorry.]

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 10:02pm CDT 

POSTED ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011 AT 10:02PM

55 degrees  Clear  Wind 5mph NE