Sunday, April 15, 2012 7:34am CDT

54 degrees F   Cloudy and Rain   Wind 1mph NE

A Canada goose swam just a little too close to the nest and was told in no uncertain terms by the loon that he was not welcome there.  And the goose went quickly flying towards shore to get away.

The loons have definitely taken ownership of the nest.

They still do not spend a lot of time on or even near the nest.  But they do watch it closely, if even from a distance.

Let something or someone approach the nest and the loons will likely appear out of 'no where' to defend their home.

There has been a little bit of nest building activity, but very minimal so far.  So far, I think there has been only one instance of mating with some other half-hearted attempts.  There will in all likelihood be several more matings before the first egg is laid.

As time for laying an egg approaches, the loons will spend more and more time on and around the nest.  There will be some rearranging of material on the nest.  The loon will use its legs to dig a bowl in the nesting material.  Then one day nest building activity and the rearranging of nesting materials will become more serious and a definite "bowl shape" will be formed and within a few days of that happening, the first egg will be laid.

Loons normally lay two eggs.  Once in a while they will lay only 1 egg and rarely they will lay 3 eggs.

The eggs are quite large and it takes a lot of energy from the loon to produce them.  The egg is easily three times the size of a normal chicken egg that you are familiar with from your own breakfast or from baking.

A loon egg is a dark olive brown with even darker brownish/black spots.  This coloring helps it blend in well with the nesting material.

I mentioned yesterday morning that we would maybe try to do something about the nightvision.

The cam is rated for nightvision but for some reason it was not picking up enough and the picture was basically black at night.

We were able to obtain another infrared light that we installed last night.

I mentioned that we would have to shut the camera down briefly while we installed the new light so that we were not working with live electricity while in the water.  I had planned on giving you a warning that we would be shutting the camera down but when we saw the opportunity to do it when the loons were no where in sight, we had to act quickly.  So I apologize that I did not get a chance to give you a written warning before we shut the camera down.

I had really expected that the loons would immediately be there when I went out to mount the new light on the platform.  So as I walked out to the nest to attach the new light, pulling a new cable, I watched and expected the loons to show up at any moment.

We had carefully planned out what we were going to do and how we were going to attach the light so that hopefully we could do it as quickly as possible and cause the least amount of disturbance and stress for the loons.  All of you know how much I hate to go anywhere near the nest when the loons are around.  We and the neighbors even minimize the amount our activity along the shore while the loons are nesting.  Without the support of neighbors who also care about the loons, it would be impossible to do this looncam.  I am eternally grateful to them.

I arrived at the nest with the new infrared light and worked as hurriedly as possible and to yet 'do it right'.  All the while I kept watching for the loons and expecting them to show up at any moment.

As I worked, I was surprised that I did not see the loons coming in.

We had carefully checked the whole lake with binoculars before we started and we could not see the loons anywhere.  That is why we decided to act quickly while they were out of sight.  But I have seen that before where the loons are no where in sight.  But let something approach the nest and as if by magic, the loons just appear out of 'nowhere'.

I finished mounting the new light on the camera and routed and secured the new cables.

And then I was headed back to shore.

I was totally amazed that we had been able to do the whole operation without the loons even knowing!

Or had we?

I had no sooner reached shore than Mark, the president of BroadbandMN said, "Is that one of the loons coming in now?"

I turned around and looked and sure enough.  There was a loon out towards the middle of the lake and he was headed toward the nest.

Wherever he had been on the lake, he had seen us and was coming over to investigate.  Then the other loon surfaced near the nest.  We had been able to do the whole operation without the loons being there.  But we had not done it without them knowing.  They knew.  And they were watching.

But we had been able to do it without causing any distress to the loons and that was the important thing.

The loons swam around the nest for a few minutes, apparently just to satisfy themselves that these strange creatures had not done anything to the nest that they did not like.  And once they were satisfied, they swam out into the lake from whence they had come.

I am ever so grateful to Mark and Anthony and Lance, the great folks from BroadbandMN who do SO much work behind the scenes to take care of a thousand and one technical details which enable you to miraculously watch a loon on a nest in the great north of Minnesota.  No matter where you are in the world.  They also are working on the sound levels to see if they can raise them a little for you so that you can hear the 'sounds of the lake' a little clearer.

Last night you were finally able to see the nest because of the new light.

It was very bright and looked like there was a huge spotlight on the nest.  We will look at what we can do to possibly make some adjustments to the light.  Some of you have wondered if that 'bright light' won't disturb the loons.

The light is an infrared light and so they do not see it.  If you would look at the nest in person, you would not see any light at all either.  So it does not disturb them.

The first year we put a camera on the nest before we were live on the web, the camera had a light built into it that could be turned on at  night.  I thought this will be great.  For the first time ever we will be able to see what loons do at night when they are on the nest.

So the first night I turned the light on.

The loon looked up a the light and immediately left the nest.  She was off the nest for about 15 minutes and she refused to get back up on the nest as long as the light was on.  She swam right by the nest but she would not get back up on the nest.

So I reluctantly turned off the light, disappointed that what had seemed like a good idea did not work at all.

The next day I thought I would fool the loons.

I would turn the light on during the day and as it gradually got dark the light would just be there and the loons wouldn't notice or care.  They would just think it was another "moon"!

The loon on the nest could have cared less when I turned it on in the broad daylight.  She did not even seem to notice or care.  Yes, this was working out brilliantly.

But as darkness came, she began looking up at this 'new moon' in her sky.  And she knew it was not right.  She got off the nest and would not return as long as the light was on.  It was a repeat of the night before.  She swam nearby but she would not get back up on the nest.

My "brilliant" idea had not been so brilliant at all.  Literally.

So once again I reluctantly turned the light off and she immediately got back up on the nest.

The mysteries of what a loon does on a nest at night would have to remain their secret for a few more years.  Until a few years ago when we were able to successfully use infrared lights to open up a whole new world of observing loons throughout the night as they are on the nest.

So now that we have the new infrared light on the nest, enjoy watching what loons do at night.

Today promises to bring rain.  Possibly heavy rain at times and even the threat of severe weather.  The forecast says that most of the severe weather will stay well to the south of us.  Our hearts go out to the people in Oklahoma who died last night in a breakout of severe weather and possibly tornadoes.

We do not need high winds or severe weather for the loons.  Rain is absolutely no problem for them.  But severe weather can do damage to the nest.

There is even a chance of SNOW for tonight!

So watch and see what happens today.

Hopefully you will be watching when the loons make their ever so brief appearances at the nest.

Comments or Questions?  LoonCam(at)yahoo(dot)com

Saturday, April 14, 2012 6:27am CDT

42 degrees F    Partly Cloudy   Calm

We have waited all winter!

And now the time is near.

Our loons are back.  They have shown interest in the nest.

They not only have shown interest in the nest.

They have been up on the nest several times and have even mated.

The sun is just coming up.  With its first rays dappling the lake, the two loons have come in and are swimming nearby the nest.  They have been up on the nest once this morning already.  Then out into the lake and now back for a 'swim by'.

Further out in the lake, two pair of geese are trying to decide if they can get along or if they need to confront each other.  A couple other pair swim off by themselves but one pair looks like they want to investigate the loon's home.  Will the loons allow it?

Soon the loons come swimming back and the geese decide they do not want a confrontation with a loon and they noisily fly off.

The loons are definitely making a statement to any and all comers that "This is our territory.  Enter at your own risk."

We continue to try to decide what more we can do with the camera to add an infrared light for night viewing.  It is still a mystery why the camera worked in a "no light" situation before when it was tested but is not giving us a good picture at night now. 

If we are able to do something, we must do it quickly before the loons actually begin their nest.  They may have located a light for the camera and if we can get it, we may try this afternoon.  If we are able to do it, we would have to shut the camera down for a little while to be able to install it.  But so much depends on what the loons are doing today.

I will try to let you know later if we think we can do something with it.

I think the view that we have with the cam is what we will have for this year.  I had also thought with the zoom feature that we would be able to zoom out further to see more of the lake.  But it seems as if this is the furthest out that the cam can zoom.  Oh well, live and learn.  We will have  a great view of the loons.

As to the initial positioning of the camera, it is always a guessing game.  We have to position it to take in the maximum area of the raft since we never know where the loons will decide to build the nest itself.  And that is the important part - that we are able to see the loons.  If we see a bunch of the lake and the loons are cut off at the bottom of the picture, no one would be very happy.  So we try to make the best guesses but are ultimately at the mercy of the loons.

Like I have said before, for two weeks before the loons actually nest, I become this paranoid person wondering if they will use the platform this year and once again grace us with their presence.

I am starting to relax a little bit now that they are taking more and more ownership of the nest.  But it is still a big unknown exactly where on the raft they will build their nest.

The loons do not seem to care much one way or the other about the pansies.  And the pansies are looking a little worse for the wear right now.  Once the loons get the nest bowl built, the will not be on other sections of the raft as much.  So if the pansies survive the loons pulling in material to build the nest, they may survive to bloom another day!  Or they may end up IN the nest.

The other plants that are on the nest are irises and daylilies.

Both of these are more hardy than the pansies and able to take abuse and even pulling and pecking and crawling over them.

But it looks like the first drama of the year is 'will the pansies live to see another day'?!

Tune in, same 'pansy time', same 'pansy channel' each day to see the 'nest episode' of "As The Pansy Turns"!

For those of you in Minnesota and Wisconsin, just a reminder that we will be talking about "Amazing Loons" at the Sandhill Center for the Arts in Bethel, Minnesota next Tuesday at 11am.  I know they were almost full a couple days ago.  But you can get more information at their website.  http://www.stfrancisce.com/insight/registry/classinfo.asp?courseID=4834&catID=1045

We are supposed to get thunderstorms later on today.  It is sounding like it will be late tonight when they get here.  Maybe after midnight.  Hopefully nothing will be severe.  As of right now, the forecast seems to be putting the more severe parts of the storms well to the south of the loon nest.  Let's hope.  In fact, let's hope that nobody gets anything severe.  But this IS spring in the central part of the United States.  And severe weather is just a fact of life.

Have a wonderful day.

Things are starting to get exciting!

Comments or Questions?    LoonCam(at)yahoo(dot)com

Friday, April 13, 2012 7:52am CDT

50 degrees F   Cloudy   Wind 3mph E

The action on the loon nest starts to pick up.

I was at a speaking engagement last night so I missed what happened. 

But from reports here we had our first mating of the year!

The loons have also been up on the nest already this morning.

This is VERY positive evidence that they will probably use the nest this year.

We are discussing what to do about the night vision and are not sure why there is not more than what you are seeing now.  The camera was tested by the Broadband MN people before they brought it out here to the lake and they said they had good night vision.  So they/I have been surprised at the black picture so far.  Except we have not had a warm-bodied loon up there either.

They have ordered a supplemental infrared light.

Whether we will be able to install that next week when it comes, is unknown.

We will just have to wait and see what the loons are doing at that point and if we dare try to add it to the camera.  I am sure the loons would come in to see what we are doing.  Whether they would get upset or overly concerned is a call that we would have to make then.

Yesterday I planted a couple pansies on the nest to give some color.  (Thanks for the suggestion.  It is probably the first time that loons anywhere have had pansies on their nest!)

I watched for sometime before I decided to go out to the nest.

When I did not see the loons anywhere, I thought it would be safe to go out.

I had no sooner gone out there than the loons showed up!

They swam very nearby but did not seem upset or overly concerned at all.

I took only a few minutes to plant the pansies and then left.  As soon as I left, the loons also left and swam out into the lake, apparently satisfied that I was not a threat to them or the nest.

But what followed afterwards, was absolutely wonderful to watch.

They were out in the lake away from the nest.  Both loons started splashing and diving excitedly.  At first glimpse, one could have thought that it was a confrontation.  But I knew this was both loons of the pair.

They preened.  And then splashed.  Just like a small bird in a birdbath.  And then dove. And surfaced.  And did it all over again.  Then surprisingly they actually turned over on their back.  White breast to the sky.  Feet up in the air.  Wings splashing water wildly.

They would right themselves and do some more preening.

And then repeat the whole procedure, including the 'upside down' splashing!

I have seen this behaviour a couple times before but never for this long.

Both loons continued to do this for upwards of half-an-hour to 45 minutes.

Splashing over and over.  Turning upside down and splashing.  Quickly rowing across the surface of the water with their wings.  Preening every feather, especially the wing feathers all the way out to the wing tips.

Preening the black and white "checkerboard" on their backs to make sure every square was just right.

Over and over and over.

The preening and even some of the splashing is a very common occurence.

But the tipping completely over on their back and splashing is something I have seen only a few times before.  And to see them do it this many times and for such a long period of time was a joy to see.

Some of those things are things which I wish we could show you on the camera.  But there is absolutely no way to capture them with the camera.

Today promises rain and thunderstorms.

Hopefully nothing gets severe.

In fact, we are supposed to have rain for the next several days.  We need the rain and the moisture.  And the rain will not affect the loons.  But severe wind could do damage to the nest and the platform.

But with this unusual weather this winter and spring, who knows what to expect.

The last couple mornings we have had very cold temperatures of 23 degrees!  It has been in the teens a little further north.

The forecast for the next few days promises even more bizarre weather.

We are supposed to get snow on Monday.  Yes, you read that right.  Snow!

When I first heard that, I figured it would be just flurries.  But they are predicting accumulation of up to 1 inch is possible!  There is a reason that they call Minnesota "The Theatre of Seasons"!  We will just have to wait and see what happens.

The drama and the excitement start to build.  You don't want to miss a minute.  Now is the time to tell your family and friends and schools and Twitterers and Facebook friends to join us for the fun.

Comments or Questions?  LoonCam(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Thursday, April 12, 2012 9:26am CDT

44 degrees F   Sunny   Calm

Late yesterday afternoon, I didn't see the loons anywhere in the area so I thought it would be a good time to get a few sections of the dock put in.

Whatever amount of dock is in when they actually start nesting is all that gets put in until they leave the nest the end of May or first part of June.  And even then, no one goes out on the dock until the loons are gone.  The loons own everything while they are here!

I had not been working on the dock for many minutes until I saw one of the loons appear.  It was obvious he was watching me from a distance and was slowly making his way toward  the nest and me.

He sat off to the side of the nest and just watched.

I kept working as fast and as quietly as I could.  As long as he was not concerned, I felt I could keep working.  It was not many minutes before the second loon showed up also.  They both swam around the nest and kept an eye on me.

They did not seem upset at all or even concerned.  More curious than anything.

And maybe just wanting to make a statement of 'You can be out here but don't come out too far.  This is ours.  Just sayin!'

They swam and watched.  I continued to work.

At one point one of them, the male I think, positioned himself about halfway between the nest and me.  No more than about 50 feet away.  I 'talked' to them the whole time with soft hoots and wails (people would probably think I was crazy if they heard me).

I was content that they were content.

Even before I finished putting in the three sections that I was planning to put in, the two loons calmly swam off out into the lake.  Apparently they had come to the conclusion that I was not going to do anything to their nest.  And also that it was pretty boring watching me work.

There were more important things to do.

Like fish!

And so off they went.  I finished what I had planned to do.  They had satisfied themselves that all was well.  So we were both happy.

I am so glad that you have gotten a chance to see the loons a little bit as they swam near the nest.

Some of you have already noticed that there is a zoom feature this year.  I do not have any control of it.  I am not sure if they will be able to zoom out any further than it is right now.  I was going to wait to tell you about it for a little while but some of you are so very observant that you saw the movement  as soon as it happened.

I am not sure about the night vision.

I was told that we would have it.  They had checked it out in a totally dark room before they brought the camera out  here and they said they had a great picture.  I raised the question the first night when I saw the picture was black but I have not heard anything new yet.  I will let you know if I hear something.  It may just be a situation where some tweaking needs to be done or some settings changed (hopefully).

We have gotten spoiled the last few years with having night vision and I hope that we will have it again this year.  I am not sure what has changed from when they tested it.  The same with the sound levels.  I will let you know anything I find out.

If you look at the top corner of the nesting platform, in the water you can see a dark shape.  I think that is the cement block that anchors that corner of the nest.  When the water is calm, you may be able to make it out.  When the water is calm, you may also be able to see fish swimming by.  

When I brought the nest in last week to do some final work on it, a very large fish swam out from underneath it.  I am not sure what it was.  I think/hope that it was a carp and not a northern or a largemouth bass.  A carp is no danger to our chicks.  But a bass or especially a northern are a danger to young chicks in the water.  I think that is what took one of our chicks a few years ago.

I know some of you saw the loons as they swam underwater yesterday.

You will probably see the loons on somewhat of an irregular schedule ... as some of you have already seen them.  They don't give me a copy of their schedule so I can't tell you when they will be here.

But probably the best times to try to see them are early in the morning or late in the afternoon/evening.  Those seem to be the times when they would be most apt to show up.  But they can show up at any time at a moments notice.

They will gradually begin to spend more time around the nest and finally begin to get up on it.  They have already been around the nest enough that it tends to put a little of my 'paranoia' at ease.  I think they will use the nest again this year.

On Easter Sunday morning, one of them actually got up on the nest for about 5 minutes.  No nest building activity at all.  She just sat there.  And yesterday, one of them made a half-hearted attempt to get up on the nest but 'fell backwards' and did not try again.

But they will.

And then you will see them up close in all their glory.

I would guess ( and it is only a guess) that we are still about a week away from them laying the first egg.  But once again, they do not give me their schedule on that either so it is only a guess!

Sit back and enjoy the anticipation.

And the excitement when one of the loons actually comes into view.

It will not be long now!

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Because of the volume of email that comes, I will not be able to answer them personally.  But I do eventually read all of your emails.  And if there are questions that several people are asking, I will try to answer them here in the blog.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012 4:20pm CDT

 

42 degrees F   Sunny   Wind 5mph NNW

 

 

WE ARE LIVE!  [Almost]

 

I just came home from being away most of the day and heard a sound coming out of my computer.

 

When I looked I have a picture and sound coming from a loon nest somewhere in Minnesota!

 

The good people from BroadbandMN were here this morning with the new special order equipment and everything went smoothly with the installation.  So I knew that we were "partially live".

 

By that I mean there is still some tweaking to be done on the MN Bound site and the KARE 11 site but they should be up very soon as well.  Thank you to BroadbandMN and MN Bound for all they do to make this possible.

 

But you should be able to see it live on UStream right now.  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mnbound-com-loon-cam

 

As you will see when the sun casts a shadow on the nest, this is a much larger camera than we have had in the past with some special features which I will try to explain as we go along.  We may have to do some tweaking on the position of the cam when we see where the loons decide to actually build their nest this year.  Now it is all up to them.

 

We were almost live last week but one of the pieces of equipment decided that it was a 'convenient time' to fail.  We were live for about 5 minutes before it went down.

 

But that meant that I could put the finishing touches on the nest .... new and more nesting material, planting plants and putting up willow branches to keep eagles from swooping directly down on the nest.

  

It rained most of the day on Saturday which prevented much of the final work.

 

And our weather changed.

 

Where we have had unusually mild weather all spring, now it has gotten colder and we are actually a little below normal.

 

Friday evening the loons came in and swam near the nest but did not come up to it.  But it prevented me from doing any of the work.  This was the first time I had seen both loons together, although the neighbors had seen them together a few days before.  

 

Then with a cold rain on Saturday, I was once again stymied in getting it done.

 

But by Saturday night, the rain had stopped.  It was still cold and windy but I needed to do what I needed to do.  I looked and did not see either of the loons anywhere so it was the perfect time to try to finish everything.

 

So into the painfully cold water I went to pull the nest back in where I could work on it.

 

I had not been working on it for very long when I looked out and saw one of the loons.  He was definitely headed my direction.  I kept working but at a little faster pace to try to get it done and back out into the lake.

 

Then the second loon appeared.  Both of them seemingly out of nowhere.

 

Wherever they had been, they were out of my sight but obviously they were watching.  And so they decided that they needed to come on check on me to see what I was doing to "their" nest.

 

They swam in fairly close, to the spot where the nest is normally anchored, and there they sat and just watched me.  Not upset.  Not concerned.  Just curious.  Oh, to know what is going through their minds.  So I talked to them (loon talk) while I continued to put the finishing touches on things.  And they sat and watched.

 

Then I started to walk out towing the nest to the spot where it would be anchored for the season.

 

The loons swam ahead of me, keeping just the proper and respectable distance.  Close enough to keep an eye on things.  But just far enough away that they would not hinder me bringing the nest out.

 

I anchored it and headed back up to shore.  They sat and watched for the next 5 or 10 minutes.  And then apparently convinced that everything was going to be ok, they calmly swam away back out into the lake.

 

Early Easter Sunday morning, both loons swam right up to the nest and sat right by it.

 

Then they started some excited splashing and diving and scooting along the surface of the water and bill dipping.  Back and forth they went.  I have not seen this behavior before by the nest.  A couple other researchers have reported "mating behavior" that I have largely discounted because I have never see what they have described of elaborate mating rituals.

 

This came the closest to what some have described.  I am not sure if it was actually a mating ritual (I still tended to think not) or if they were just excited about having a nice nesting site.  Or some other reason totally - which is more likely the case.

 

This went on for almost half an hour.

 

Then one of the loons got up on the nest and calmly sat there.  Just look around.  Checking the paint and the carpet and the lighting and trying to decide if they wanted to buy this house in this neighborhood.  And was the neighborhood safe and did it have good schools!  She didn't do any housework or nest building.  She just sat there.  The other loon swam calmly nearby.

  

After about 5 minutes on the nest, the loon decided she had seen enough.  She got off the nest and they swam off together.

 

Some of you may remember from previous years how I just become this paranoid person for about two weeks until the loons actually start to build their nest and until the first egg is laid.

 

What if we do all this and have all these people watching and getting all excited and then the loons don't use the nest this year?  Then what?!

 

Well, the fact that one of the loons has already been on the nest indicates that they know the nest is there and that they are interested in at least renting if not buying!

 

That is the only time I have seen them that near the nest and the only time that one of them has gotten on the nest.

 

Yesterday and today have been cold and windy and I have not seen either of the loons around.  At this stage you will probably not see much of them at all until they get serious about nest building.  That could easily be another week or two.  Early morning or early evening are probably the best times where you might catch a glimpse of them.

 

But now comes the time for patience (and paranoia!) as we wait for them to decide what they are going to do.

 

At this point it is out of our hands.

 

We have provided them with everything they need.  Now it is up to them to decide if they are going to grace us with their presence.  And with their beauty.

 

Let your family and friends and schools know.

 

The drama and excitement for 2012 has only just begun!  

 

 

 

 

Comments or Questions?   LoonCam(at)yahoo(dot)com     [I think most of you know how to read that.  It helps minimize the sometimes overwhelming amount of spam that is generated.  If you don't know how to read it, ask your 10 year old son or grandson and they will quickly explain it to you!]