Wednesday, May 30, 2012 5:41am CDT

 

46 degrees F     Clear    Wind 6mph N

Sunrise  5:29am     Sunset   8:52pm

 

 

On a chilly Minnesota morning, sunlight paints the nest with its first morning beams of gold.

 

And the loon sits patiently on its eggs.  Ever faithful.  Ever vigilant.

 

We - and they - are now down to the last few days before an expected hatch.  Anticipation builds with each passing day.

 

Unlike many birds whose chicks spend extended amounts of times in the nest before they are able to leave the nest and fly away on their own, our time with the loon chicks is almost ephemeral.  Loon chicks are what are known as 'precocious'.  They are able to swim on their own within hours of being born.  And they usually leave the nest within 24 hours of hatching.

 

So if your friends and family have not been watching so far, now is the time to encourage them to watch before the chicks hatch and are gone forever.

 

Many of you have been keeping careful track and trying to understand which of the loons is on the nest - the male or the female.

 

This year has been unusual in that department as well with the male spending long hours of time on the nest.

 

Normally the male and female share the nesting duties almost equally.  But this year they are proving that we don't always know what they are going to do or why they are doing what they do.  There is always more to learn.

 

It is also so good this morning to wake up to the camera being live again.  We don't realize how quickly we become dependent on having this close-up view of the life of a loon on its nest.  And the ability to observe every small detail.

 

In all the years that I have had of observing them, I have taken this view for granted too many times.  And when the LoonCam went down for a couple days because of equipment problems, I was back many years to having to watch them through binoculars.  I was reminded of how little I could see for many years through those binoculars.  And many of you were reminded how you would never have a chance to see anything of a loon on a nest without the LoonCam.

 

It has become a part of our lives.

 

It is something that researchers of years past would have given anything to have this kind of a view.

 

And many of you have become researchers of your own as you have so carefully kept track and documented every move of the loons on the nest for multitudes of other people who have not been able to watch all the time.  Once again, I thank all of you for the service that you do for everyone!

 

The last couple days have given the loons a little bit of relief from a special black fly that is attracted only to common loons.

 

We have all been tormented by black flies that bite.  Black flies that are half the size of a common house fly or less.  And they are fast.  They can bite and take a chunk out of you before you can swat them.  They are unlike a horsefly or deerfly that are large and can be fairly easily slapped.  But black flies can bite and get away before you can kill them.  And they hurt.

 

But the black flies that are specific to loons (simulium euryadminiculum) are much smaller than the black flies that bite humans.  Smaller by many orders of magnitude.  They are more the size of gnats but they are care a completely different species.

 

On a calm and warm day, they can torment the loons something fierce.  There have been cases documented where they have become so bad that they have forced loons to abandon their nests.

 

In an amazing case of specialization in the natural world, these black flies feed ONLY on loon blood!

 

Much research has been done on them through the years and their are still a lot of questions of what specifically attracts them only to loons.  So far it seems to be a combination of odor, color and maybe shape.  But mainly odor.

 

Tests have been done even with museum specimens of loon skins that have laid in drawers of museums for years.  When the loon skins were laid on a beach along with the skins of mergansers and grebes and other waterfowl, these specialized black flies were drawn only to the loon skins.

 

It is an absolutely amazing case of specialization in the animal world.

 

A few days ago you were able to see them as they swarmed around the loon's head.  The loon shook its head and wiped its head along its back over and over to get rid of the flies.

 

Watch and see if you can see this little fly when it lives on the loon.

 

But hopefully today with the cooler temperatures and a little bit of wind these black flies will not bother our loons too much.

 

We only have a few days left where the loon is "trapped" sitting on the nest.  Once it is back in the water it can dive to help get rid of the  black flies.

 

Hopefully they will be able to be back in the water with two new little loon chicks very soon!

 

 

 

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

Copyright  2012     Larry Backlund

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 4:15pm CDT

 

Ahhhhhhh!

 

The sweet view of a loon sitting on a nest in Minnesota!

 

We are back live with the LoonCam at 4:00pm.

 

The good folks from BroadBand have just left and are now on their long trek back home.  Thanks guys!

 

They were actually able to fix the server and get everything back up and running.  It is yet one more example of how a multitude of different things must all work perfectly to bring you this picture from the nest.  If one of them somewhere along the way decides it is not going to work, it doesn't make any difference is the other 99% are working.  That one thing will kill the video feed and the picture.

 

Without getting into a lot of boring detail, this really seems to have been a fluke.

 

It turned out that the power supply to the server had gone out. 

 

And even though it went out at a time when we had big storms moving through the area, it may or may not have been related to the storms.  It may have just decided to quit working.

 

But whatever the reason, the good part is that all of us now have the LoonCam back and can watch these final days leading up to the hatching of our loon chicks.

 

I do not expect anything to happen before Saturday.

 

But it could happen as early as Saturday to Monday.  Or at any time next week.

 

So now is the time to watch closely.

 

Now it gets exciting!

 

 

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

Copyright  2012   Larry Backlund

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 12:36pm CDT

I just got off the phone again with BroadBand.

They are on their way out to see what they can do here.  They have tried other things but nothing has worked to bring the camera back up.

They are bringing parts and equipment with them and hoping that they can fix it on site rather than having to do more serious repair to the server.

They have a long drive to get here so it will still be several hours before they get here.  But hopefully they will be able to find and fix the problem and all of us will once again be able to enjoy the LoonCam and our beautiful loons.

The loon is still on the nest and apparently is doing well.

S/he just now completed another repositioning and an egg roll.

The nest is riding the waves well.   There are some whitecaps on the lake but they are not huge.  But if the anchor rope had not been lengthened, no doubt waves would be hitting the nest and continuing to erode nesting material.  But that should not be a major problem right now with the longer anchor rope.  Hindsight says that even as difficult as it was to do, it was the right decision.

Today feels downright cold compared to what it has been.  With the temperature at only 60 degrees and the wind coming off the lake, it feels much colder than that.  But perfect weather for the loons.

I will update you after BroadBand has been here and they know more about what the problem is.

Stay tuned.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 5:29am CDT

53 degrees    Clear     Wind  2mph N

Sunrise  5:29am     Sunset  8:51pm

As the first rays of the sun prepare to break above the trees on the edge of the lake, our loon sits calmly on the nest.  Carefully protecting its eggs.

The mate floats nearby, just beyond the buoys.

It is a very good morning in loonville.

The loons have survived the Memorial Day activity on the lake yesterday.  And they survived the intrusion of somebody messing around with the anchor rope on their nest!  But the nest this morning rides much easier on the small ripples on the lake.  It is not being held partially underwater by an anchor rope that had become too short because of the amazing rise in the level of the lake.

For the last few days our loons seem to have settled into a more familiar and relaxed routine contrary to some of the conflict that we have seen this year.

Yesterday there was a lot of boat traffic that went by the nest over and over.

Many of them were obviously aware of the nest and interested in it but there were none of them that did anything out of the ordinary or approached too closely.  All of them were very respectful.  Others were only interested in their boating or water skiing or fishing and hardly paid any attention to the loons or the nest.

The ones that the loon reacted to the most by going into its defensive hangover were the canoes and kayaks especially and one or two small slow moving rowboats.  When one of those passed, the loon would go into deep hangover.  The mate stayed very close to the nest for most of the day.  It would often place itself between the boat and the nest and quietly followed until the boat was away from the nest.

I saw no confrontations or territorial battles yesterday.  It has been a calm couple days.

Let us hope for the same thing for our loons over the next few days. 

We are on the final countdown to the hatching of the eggs.

I would not expect anything to happen before this Saturday.  But I think sometime between Saturday through Monday are very real possibilities for the first egg to hatch.  So now the excitement begins.

Along with you, I am missing the LoonCam being down.  It is interesting how quickly we become accustomed to being able to watch at any time of the night or day.  And to see close up what the loons are doing.  I find it difficult to going back to my limited view through binoculars.  Suddenly I am back to what it was like a number of years ago when the view and the understanding was limited to what you could see through the binoculars.

I know it is even more the case for you with no view of the nest.

It has also been a reminder how wonderful all of you are.  And it has been a reminder of how valuable all your observations are.  To have eyes on the nest 24 hours a day is very valuable to everyone and adds so much to our knowledge of what has happened during times when we cannot be watching.  So thank you to each one of you again for all you do.

I talked to the good folks at Broadband yesterday morning and I know that they are working on getting the cam up and running again.  But I am sure they were limited by the holiday weekend.  I hope to be talking to them again this morning to find out exactly where the problem is and get it fixed.  Right now it sounds like one of the servers was taken out by the storms on Saturday night.

There are so many things that have to work perfectly in order to bring you the view from the LoonCam.  If there is a glitch in only one of them, there is no picture and no sound.

So hang in there.  Hopefully they will be back up and running soon and once again you will be able to see our beautiful loons on this beautiful spring morning.

I have already described to you what happened yesterday morning when I had to go out to the nest to lengthen the anchor rope and what the loon's reaction was.  I left off that report with the loons still being off the nest after I had replaced the rope.

Let me fill you in on what happened after.

As I quickly made my way to shore with the amazing sight of two loons darting back and forth underwater within inches of my legs, I have to admit that it was not an easy time.  First of all, you all know how I hate to go anywhere near the nest while the loons are on it, let alone to do anything to the nesting platform.  And the fact that even though it took only a few minutes, it was longer than what I wanted because the knot in the rope had been pulled so very tight by the tension on the rope.

Secondly, there was no guarantee that things would not become more serious than two loons just swimming close to my legs like torpedos rapidly going back and forth.  There was a combination of awe and concern.  And a sense of relief when I reached the shore with no damage having been done.

But I was not prepared for what happened next.

I quickly went up to the house to get out of sight completely and let the loons relax.

As I looked back down to the lake, one of the loons swam out beyond the buoys.  The other loon swam completely around the nest and at one point looked like it was going to get right back up on the nest.  I hoped beyond hope that it would.

But it didn't.

After it had made its inspection swim around the nest, it swam out to its mate just beyond the buoys.  They quietly and calmly swam together for a couple minutes.

But then they swam away!

Not only did they swim away, they swam toward an area of the lake that they seldom swam toward.

The image in my mind was hard to take.  It was as if both loons had turned their back on the nest and were now leaving it!  My heart sank.  Had the stress of replacing the rope been too much.  Would they actually abandon the nest?  My hope was that they would not.  But the view of them swimming side by side as they swam to a whole different section of the lake was a difficult image.  There was no guarantee that they would come back.  It seemed so final.

But fortunately in spite of my worries, one of the loons did come back and was on the nest within about half an hour.

I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief as it awkwardly made its way up onto the nest and settled down on the eggs.  I could not see the mate.  But at that point I didn't really care all that much.  There was a loon on the nest and the eggs were once again being protected and kept warm.

The rest of the day went better than what I could have even hoped for on the busy Memorial Day on the lake.

And this morning, the loon continues to faithfully sit on the nest and nurture those eggs.

A number of people commented on how brave I was to go out to the nest to add more rope to the anchor rope.  As I thought about it I am not sure it was as much bravery as stupidity.  But what had to be done, had to be done.

The other good news this morning is for the other pair of loons that is apparently nesting on the lake.

I had been very concerned about them after reports from a couple neighbors who had seen them swimming out in the lake and therefore had thought that they had lost their nest to the rising waters.  From those reports, I had been very concerned about the same thing.  It was fully reasonable that the nest had been inundated by the dramatic rise in the lake level.

But then yesterday I got reports from a couple other neighbors on that part of the lake that they could see two chicks swimming with that pair of loons!

Somehow the nest had survived the rising water!  And not only survived but that two little loons chicks had hatched on that nest.  So two eggs down and two more eggs to hatch.

With all the excitement and activity of yesterday, I did not even take time to once again thank all of our servicemen and women for their sacrifice for all of us.  Thank you is never enough but know that all of us are forever indebted to your for your selfless sacrifice and service.  Thank any serviceman or woman you know, past or present, for their service to all of us.

The forecast for the next few days is for a return to more normal weather.  While there is the possibility of some rain later this week, hopefully it is only minor precipitation and not the 'monsoon' storms that we have been seeing.  We certainly do not need more rain for a while.

So wherever you are and whatever you are doing today, I hope that you will take time to see all the beauty of creation all around you at this special time of the year.

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

Copyright  2012     Larry Backlund

Monday, May 28, 2012 6:15am CDT

 

Well, it is done!

 

With daylight, it became obvious that something needed to be done.  The was a noticeable tilt to the nesting platform and it was obvious that one corner of the platform was being held partially underwater by the anchor rope.

 

So reluctantly I took the rope that I had prepared and headed out to the nest.

 

The first amazing thing was the reaction of the loon.

 

Normally they seem to know me and never react or go into hangover position even when I am mowing down by the shoreline.

 

But as soon as I came out of the house this morning, the loon went into deep hangover position.

 

I quietly but quickly made my way out to the nest.  Trying to minimize the amount of time I was anywhere in the area but trying to not alarm the loon.  The loon stayed in deep hangover position, occasionally turning and looking at me as I approached.  It was not until I was about within 15 feet of the platform before it left and slid into the water.

 

When it surfaced only a few feet away, it turned and looked at me.

 

I hurried to try to undo the knot on the anchor rope.

 

The loon did a penguin dance.  But no call.  And then another dance.

 

The knot had been pulled so tight by the rope being so tight that I was having trouble getting the knot loose.  The loon kept circling around me and doing the penguin dance.  Diving and then surfacing once more.

 

It was frustrating that I was unable to get the knot undone.

 

Then the loon swam underwater within inches of my leg.  It could have done damage but it just swam by.  I kept working on the knot.  Another penguin dance.  Then a couple more swim-bys close to my legs.

 

By the time I finally was able to get the knot undone, the other loon had also appeared from somewhere out on the lake.  As fast as I could, I tied the new section of rope to the existing anchor rope and to the nesting platform.

 

Now both loons were making passes underwater very close to my legs.  But still no attempt to stab at me for which I was VERY thankful.

 

I finished the knots trying to make sure they were secure but also trying to hurry.  And also trying to keep track of where the loons were as they swam back and forth underwater close to my legs.

 

I was so intent on taking care of fastening the rope, which is what I was there for, that I did not even have time to look at the nest or see how much had washed away.

 

I quickly started toward shore.

 

Both loons kept passing by my legs underwater.  Only inches away each time.  Over and over.  They were like underwater torpedos.  I just did not want them to torpedo me.  Back and forth they went.

 

Over and over and over again, they passed close to my legs.  Back and forth.  I wasn't out of danger yet.  But so far they had not shown any attempt to do more than swim close to me.  Way too close for comfort.  But only close.  But they continued.  Back and forth.

 

Only when I was almost all the way to shore did they quit swimming by me and they swam out and surfaced out toward the nest.  And only then did they give a couple small tremolo calls.  Up until that time, everything had been absolutely silent.

 

They could so easily have attacked and done damage to me.  But they didn't.  They just wanted to show that they were very concerned and were not happy with me being out to the nest.  I have to admit that every pass underwater made me catch my breath and maybe even say a quick prayer.  It definitely was not a pleasant experience but at the same time there was a sense of awe.

 

I quickly made my way back up to the house and out of sight.

 

One loon swam back out a ways into the lake.  The other one made a swim around the nest as if to assure itself that nothing had changed.  And then it swam out to join the other loon.

 

Right now they are both swimming together a little way out from the nest.

 

It is a mild morning so I am not worried about the eggs being uncovered for a while.  It is now about 15 minutes.  But everything in me wants them to come back immediately and get back on the nest.  

 

So now the nest can ride over any waves that might come.

 

After seeing how tight the rope was and that it was actually pulling that corner down a little, there is no doubt in my mind that the nest was in danger.  Any more rain or any amount of waves could have been a very real threat to the nest surviving.  It maybe could have made it for another week but that is a "maybe" that would not have been wise to take a chance on.

 

At least for now, we have given it the best chance for survival that we can give it.  Now the rest is up to the loons and Mother Nature in this most unusual year.

 

A neighbor told me last night that they have been seeing a pair of loons swimming on the other part of the lake for the last couple days.  They were worried that maybe the other nest had been washed away in the high water.  I think that is a very real possibility.

 

I have not actually seen the other nest with my own eyes nor can I say definitively that it has gone underwater.  But I think that is possible.  And especially with the report that a pair of loons has been swimming together out in the lake, it would support the idea that they have lost their nest.

 

I measured this morning and the lake is up over 17 inches from where it was when I put the nest out back in March!  That is an unbelievable rise in the water level.  This morning the water level on parts of my front lawn is ankle deep!

 

So I think there is very good possibility that any 'natural nest' on this lake or any other in central Minnesota may very well be underwater.  That is sad to see or think about.  But it is a reality of what happens in nature all the time.  It is just that we never see it and when it is out of sight it is out of mind.

 

Now we enter the homestretch of waiting for the eggs to hatch.  We don't need any more drama.  We don't need any  more change.  We don't need any more unique things happening.

 

All we need now are two little loon chicks!

 

 

 

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

Copyright  2012     Larry Backlund