Tuesday, May 31, 2011 4:52am CDT

 
70 degrees   Scattered Clouds   Wind 4mph SE
 
 
Morning light just begins to gild the eastern sky on a northern lake.
 
One can now make out the surface of the lake and the far shoreline.
 
The frogs are in full song and there is a chirping sound.  The same one I heard yesterday morning.  Is it the morning birds getting ready?  Because now there is also the sound of the morning birds as well.  Or is it 'something' else?!
 
The sun won't be up for more than half an hour yet.
 
The loon mate sits patiently about 30 feet from the nest.  Just floating.  Just relaxing.
 
One wonders what (s)he knows that he isn't telling us.  What conversations do the loons have with each other when they do their nest exchange?  How much information is exchanged?  Or is any information exchanged?
 
I have been watching for about 20 minutes and I have not seen any signs that the appearance of a chick is imminent.  Or that full-fledged hatching is under way.
 
At least not the signs I want to see to be a little more certain of what is happening.
 
There have been a few subtle tail wiggles that is not normal and might be a sign of things happening under there.  But no wing lifts or other flinching like there were a few of last night.
 
Some people in the chat room said they had seen more of that behavior over night and egg turning more often than normal.  But no clear view of the eggs.  Nor have I seen any clear view of the eggs this morning.
 
So the "egg hatching vigil" continues!
 
Just a reminder that it can take many hours from the time an egg is first 'pipped' before a chick actually hatches.  At least that is the case with chickens and many other birds.  But once again so very little is known about loons.
 
There is nothing we can do to speed it up.
 
The chicks will decide when they 'pip and zip and hatch'.
 
And the adult loon will decide when it wants to get up and give us a good view.
 
So once again, we wait.  And hope.
 
 
Questions or Comments?   LoonCam@yahoo.com
 

Monday, May 30, 2011 6:56pm CDT

 
87 degrees   Clear  Wind 6mph SW    Dewpoint 71 degrees
 
 
Let's talk a little bit more about hatching since we seem to be getting so close.
 
I certainly am no expert in hatching chickens or anything in incubators although I have done it.  But it has been many years since I last hatched some pheasants in an incubator.
 
People who hatch eggs refer to a sequence of "pipping, zipping and hatching".
 
A chick in an egg will struggle mightily to make the first hole in the egg.  This is called pipping.  It gives the chick its first chance to breathe air.
 
The chick has a little bump on the top of its beak at the tip that is called an "egg tooth".  It is specifically there as a 'tool' for the chick to work its way out of the egg.  Shortly after the chick has hatched, the egg tooth disappears.  Yet one more of the miracles that we are so unaware of as we go about our everyday lives.
 
That effort to pip the egg may so wear out and tire the chick that it may stop all activity for many hours.  Sometimes up to 24 hours while it rests.
 
That is for some of the more common eggs like chickens and ducks.  But so very little is known about loons hatching that little can be said with any certainty at all.  But I would guess ...  and I emphasize it is only a guess since so little is known ... that I would expect that loons would be somewhat similar to other birds.
 
After a chick has 'pipped' and rested, it will start to 'zip'.
 
It literally starts to cut or 'zip' its way around the egg to allow it to get out.
 
Once it has 'zipped' its way or part way around the egg,  the egg shell can be forced open and the chick then hatches out of the egg and is free of the shell.
 
So that is where  the terms "pipping, zipping and hatching" come from.
 
This whole process from the first pipping until the chick hatches can easily take 24 hours or more.  But let me repeat once again that very little is known with any surety about loon chicks hatching so you may be part of adding to our knowledge by what you observe here on the LoonCam!
 
So where are we in this process of "pipping, zipping and hatching" with our loons?  That is the big question.
 
I still do not know enough to say definitively what is happening.  There are a few clues but precious little hard data.  And here I am still struggling with what I WANT to see and what I am actually seeing that can be documented.
 
What are some of the "few clues" that I mentioned?
 
The biggest one of course is just the time.  The 'normal' incubation period for loon eggs that has been accepted for many decades is 28 days.  But until the advent of the LoonCam, very few researchers have ever been able to document either egg laying or egg hatching with any certainty whatsoever.  Many observations established the 26-31 days but a lot of it was necessarily based on guess work.
 
With the advent of the LoonCam we have been able to definitively tell when an egg was laid and also tell when it hatched within a few hours.
 
Consistently we have seen the hatching tending to be toward the shorter end of the range of 26-31 days reported over the years in research literature.
 
I have even documented at least 2 cases of chicks hatching at 25.5 days.  
 
We passed the 25.5 day mark this morning.  So that is the first 'clue' that I referred to.
 
An even more powerful clue is that in just the last half hour there have been several 'wing twitches' where she has lifted her wing slightly.  That is the one clue that was missing this morning when I wondered if there was a pip in the egg.  The loon sat very still in the heavy rain with no twitching.  But that could have been due to the rain.  Or due to that there was no pipping going on.
 
So are those wing twitches trying to tell us something.  Maybe.  Maybe not.
 
The clues start to add together but still do not give us anything definitive.
 
A third clue was that this morning there was a 'chirping'.  I did not give it a second thought and simply thought it was the birds getting ready for the first light of dawn.  After I saw what I thought was possibly a hole in the egg from a pip, I began to wonder if the 'chirp' was actually something other than the morning birds warming up.
 
Once again, I have to rein myself in and tell myself not to get in front of the data and actual facts.  But careful observations start to paint a more complete picture even though they lend themselves to the danger of surmising what is not there.  I probably should not even be talking about all these things until we know for sure what is happening.  
 
But I wanted to give you some insight into what has been going through my mind....and I am sure yours as well.
 
Let me add one more 'clue' that is even a little more tenuous but it adds to the whole picture.
 
Shortly after 5pm CDT the loon was off the nest for about 10 minutes.
 
I convinced my self that there was a pip in each of the eggs!  As I watched very carefully, I convinced myself that I could see movement on the right egg and maybe even a little on the left egg.  The contour of the egg was silhouetted against a cattail reed laying in the nest so there was good contrast between the dark egg and the light cattail reed.  And there appeared to be movement where the 'apparent hole' seemed to be located.  Like a small, and I do mean small, movement of a chick's beak.
 
I could have just as easily been a mind trick or visual trick or a trick of shadows or just the pixels of the  video
moving without a lot of fine definition.
 
Like I said, I am going way out on a limb with some of this surmising.  I emphasize at this point it is surmising.
 
I may turn out to be totally wrong.
 
Or we may be in the midst of the actual hatch.  Only time will tell.  Time.  Time.  Time.  Frustratingly slow time!
 
Someone asked me to say a word about the fights between chicks that I have talked about in previous years.
 
This will be something you can watch for when we actually have a hatch.
 
The chicks will normally leave the nest within about 24 to 48 hours of hatching.  The second chick usually hatches about a day after the first chick hatches, even though the eggs  may have been laid further apart than that.  It is something called "catch up".
 
In almost every case, I have observed the two chicks to have a knock down drag out fight with each other.  It is very hard to watch because you are sure you are going to watch one chick kill the other chick.  It seems like it is the first chick to be born that starts the fight.  He is already bigger and stronger than the chick that is born second.
 
The fight only lasts for maybe 10 minutes but it is the longest hardest 10 minutes that you will ever watch.  I just wanted to give you a heads up so that if and when you see it you will be prepared.  I have watched it happen on the nest.  And I have watched it happen in the water.
 
It is the proverbial 'pecking order' that we talk about but give hardly a second thought to what it really means.
 
In all the instances where I have witnessed it, it seems to be a unique and one-time occurrence.  Once it is over, the chicks seem to get along very well with each other.
 
But watching that fight is not the most pleasant thing to watch.
 
I don't think I have ever written publicly about this much of my behind the scenes conjecture.  I have usually waited until I had something that was a little more concrete and provable before I talked to you about it.  I am not sure why I am doing this now.  Other than to share with you my inmost thoughts about what is happening and what we are watching together.  
 
And to encourage you to watch closely and carefully.  And to gather your loved ones around you to share this special moment  and this miracle with them.
  
I may turn out to be totally wrong in what I think I am seeing and I may be mislead by my own hopes and wants and wishes.
 
Or we may be on the verge of the actual hatch!
 
The one sure thing is that if they are going to hatch, it will almost certainly be in the next couple days.
 
That alone is enough to start your heart racing.
 
 
Questions or Comments?   LoonCam@yahoo.com

Monday, May 30, 2011 1:22pm CDT

 

80 degrees  Cloudy   Wind 8mph SE

 

The thunderstorms that came through this morning brought a whole new weather system in with them.

Right now it is 80 degrees.  That isn't so bad.  But there is also 80% humidity along with it which gives a tropical 73 degree dew point.  The high temperatures and humidity will probably set up thunderstorms which are predicted for later this evening.

We have just had a nest exchange for the loons.

I watched carefully to see if I could see what looked like a hole in one of the eggs that I saw this morning.  If it is there, I could not see it.  There is still a very real chance that it was just something stuck to the egg and not actually a hole this morning.

There have not been the characteristic 'twitching' and 'flinching' of the loon if there is a chick trying to get out of the egg.

So I am still very much torn betwixt and between as to whether the hatch has started or not.

There is one part of me that wants it to be so.

There is another part that says just go by the signs and what is actually there and verifiable.  And right now the two views are fighting each other.

The nest exchange was so quick that it could still very well be that the 'hole' in the egg was hidden on the side of the egg away from the camera.  Or it could be that whatever was stuck to the egg fell off.

We can only continue to watch and wait.  And hope.

If the eggs are going to hatch, we are getting very close to the time that should begin to happen.

So one part of me continues to believe there is a hole in the side of the egg and that I heard chirping early this morning.

But realism demands that I wait.  

No matter how hard that is to do.

 

Questions or Comments?    LoonCam@yahoo.com

 

Memorial Day, May 31, 2011 5:32am CDT

 
60 degrees  Rain and Thunderstorms  Wind 7mph E
 
 
Is it possible?!
 
Could this be THE day?
 
Is there a hole in one of the eggs?!!
 
There have been a couple of heavy thunderstorm cells that have moved through during the night.  But there has been no high winds or hail for our loons.  Just heavy rain.
 
Amazingly, the loon on the nest sat through both storms with her bill tucked under her wing, seemingly unconcerned.
 
But a few minutes ago, the loon got off the nest and joined the mate who was swimming closeby.
 
It may be hopeful thinking on my part, but it sure looks like there is a hole in one of the eggs!
 
Could this be the first chick trying to break out into a whole new world?
 
Hope rises and it springs eternal.
 
I try to not get hopes up too much or over nothing.  But it sure looks like a hole.  Or could it just be 'nest debris'?
 
For almost the last hour there has been 'chirping' which I had just attributed to the chorus of morning bird songs.  But now I am beginning to wonder.  Although I thought is sounded different than most bird songs  .... it was more a a chirping than the normal bird 'songs' .... I really did not give second thought to it at the time.
 
Now that I think I see a hole in the egg, I begin to wonder if it is chirping of a chick and not the normal morning birds.  It stops for a little bit.  And then it starts again.  Same volume.  Sort of indicating the same location.
 
It is hard not to worry seeing something that is not there and about getting up false hopes.
 
But could it be?!
 
Watch for some of the tell tale movements of the loon over the next few hours when it gets back on the eggs.  The flinches, the wing movements and all the other signs.
 
The rain starts again and the loon immediately gets up on the nest and rolls the eggs.  The 'hole' rolls with the egg and does not fall off.  It could still be something just stuck to the egg, but it makes me wonder even more if it is a hole.
 
Only time will tell!
 
But time passes so frustratingly slow when you are waiting for answers to earth shaking questions like this!
  
 
 
 Questions or Comments?   LoonCam@yahoo.com