Sunday, June 10, 2012 5:51am CDT

70 degrees     Clear    Calm

Sunrise  5:24am     Sunset  9:00pm

On a warm morning, one of our loons and our healthy little chick sit not too far from the nest.

The chick is sitting on the back of the loon.  Up until a few minutes ago, it was getting a grand slam breakfast of minnow after minnow.

But for now, it seems to have had its fill of food and is content to just ride on mom or dad's back.

Riding on the back is one of the iconic pictures of little loon chicks.

It is something they do often during the first couple weeks of their life.  It serves several purposes.  By riding on the parent's back, it protects the chick from predators above and especially below.  A northern, muskie, bass or snapping turtle cannot easily pluck it from the surface of the lake.  Nor can an eagle easily take it off mom or dad's back.

Plus it allows a chick to stay warm.

So much of the time that a chick is not actively feeding during the first couple weeks of its life, it will be seen riding on the adult loons back.

This morning our little chick is one week old.

Can it really be a week ago already that we first saw this little guy poke his head out from underneath a wing?

In a way it seems like such a short time ago.  But in some other ways it seems like we have known this chick for so long and come to love him.  To love his antics as he time after time has gotten back up on the nest.  Constantly preening.  Always moving.  Moving up, down and over the adult on the nest.

What is unusual is how often it has returned to the nest.

And more often than not, it has been the chick that has taken the lead to return to the nest.  It is the chick that has led the adult back to the nest.  He seems to be very comfortable at spending time on the nest.

What will he do today?

Will he behave more like a loon and be content to stay in the water?  Or will he once again spend more time on the nest?

He was up on the nest for extended periods of time yesterday.  Seemingly happy and content to be there.  He last left the nest at 11pm last night and I assume has not been on the nest all night.

I watched him just as it was getting dark last night.  The chick was on the nest all by himself.  One of the adults sat about 20 feet away from the nest with a minnow in its beak.  It mewed over and over.  Seemingly saying to the chick 'I have a minnow for you.  Come over and get it.'

But the chick stayed on the nest.

Finally the the adult gave up and brought the minnow over to the chick on the nest.

Most of the time that you have seen the chick alone on the nest, one of the loons has been nearby keeping watch over it.

But last night at about 7pm, our family had to confront an 'intruder loon'.  This is the first time in several days that I have seen any territorial struggles with another loon.

Our family had been quietly swimming inside of the buoys when all of a sudden there were yodels.  And tremolos.  Over and over.

Both parents left the chick floating by himself and swam out to meet the intruder.

There was a full-fledged confrontation.

Call after call.  Complete with penguin dances.

Then one of the loons went flapping and rowing rapidly across the surface of the water as it headed toward the middle of the lake.  With two loons in hot pursuit.

And our chick sat bobbing all alone.

Any time I see the chick bobbing around all by itself, my heart skips a beat.  I watch in dread of that swirl of water from below.   Maybe if we had not lost a chick exactly that way a few years ago, I would be less concerned.

But a chick by itself at this age is so defenseless.

Once the parents had driven the intruder well away from the area, they quickly returned to the chick and swam around the nest.  All was well.

We have all smiled and marvelled at the spunk of our little chick as he has returned to the nest.  It has been so much fun to watch him even though we wish that he would not keep coming back to the nest.  But we will take as a gift every view of our chick.  And this year we have had a lot of 'gifts'.

You can see that he already has grown dramatically in the one week since he was born.

Already his black down that we saw when he was first born is turning to more of a brown color.

He will continue to go through that color change over the next couple weeks.  It will be several weeks before he begins to get actual feathers.  Down will be his coat of 'choice' for several weeks yet.  It is normal for the chick to preen almost non-stop.

Even when they are in the water, if they are not feeding there is a good chance that they will be preening.  They will roll over on their side, one huge foot waving in the air as they preen the down on their belly.  With one foot in the air and the other in the water, it tends to spin them around and around.  Like everything else that the chick does, it makes it almost impossible for us to take our eyes off him.

There has been a lot of speculation as to why the chick seems to want to keep returning to the nest.

I will be honest.  I do not have any good or easy answers.

Several years ago, when one egg hatched and the other one did not, the adults came back to the nest to incubate the remaining egg.  And each time they came back, the chick came back with them and spent time on the nest.  We were privileged for 10 days or two weeks to watch the chick grow dramatically.

But in that case, it was the parents that came to the nest and the chick followed.

In this case, it seems to be the chick that wants to return to the nest and he brings the parents along with him.

If you will remember, just a few short days ago we were concerned that they parents had seemingly abandoned the second egg and were off all day long swimming with our little chick.

When the second egg broke on the nest, I really expected that it would break the bond with the nest and that the loons would move on with life.  But that seemed to change the chick's behavior.  He started returning to the nest for extended periods of time and he brought the parents with him.  Rather than the other way around.

So let us see what today brings.

I have been starting to consider what our options are or should be.

Suffice it to say that we will not just turn the LoonCam off 'cold turkey'.  I will try to give you at least a couple days warning before the cam goes dark for another year.  The determining factor will be what the loons do.

Several have also asked what will happen to this blog.

As we go along, my posts will become less and less.  Rather than daily it may be every couple days.  And then once a week or once every couple weeks.  Or once a month.

But I will try to keep you up-to-date on what is happening with our loons and with our little chick who will not be 'little' for very long.

And then this fall the cycle will start all over again or will continue as our loons once again migrate south for the winter.

This is a good time to remind you about the USGS website that tracks loons that have had satellite transmitters implanted in them to track their movements.  http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/migrations.html

The site is no longer being updated with the loons from last year that are now back on their summer breeding lakes.  But the USGS is continuing with its study of the migration patterns of loons.  There is so much that is still unknown about their migration and especially about their wintering habits.  But the work of Kevin Kenow of the USGS has added so much knowledge about this part of a loon's life.

And it continues.

I got an email from Kevin a few days ago.  It is looking promising that this summer, probably in mid-July, we may actually have 'our loons' banded and fitted with data recorders.  Not a surgical implant of a satellite transmitter but of a data recorder fitted to their leg.  This data recorder will document where the loon goes, how deep it dives, how high it flies and other vital information.  Later the data recorder has to be recovered to download the data.

So that is very good news!

It is something we have wanted for sometime.  Very possibly next year we will see loons sporting some new 'bling' on their legs.  And we will be able to tell one loon from another.  And know if it is the same loons from this year that come back next year.

But the first requirement is for our chick to remain healthy and strong and growing.  Without that, nothing else happens.

So this morning I wanted to give you that update and something to look forward to.

But today the important thing is our little chick.

Today promises to be another very hot day with high temperatures in the mid-90s.  A day that our loons are much better to be in the cool water rather than sitting exposed to the hot sun on the nest.

What will our chick decide to do today?

I have given up trying to predict.

Late this afternoon or tonight, there is also a possibility for strong thunderstorms.  The loons are able to contend with thunderstorms much better when they are in the water than when they are on the nest.

So let's see what our chick does today.

Will he be a loon?  Or will he be a 'land loon'?

The saga continues and you don't want to miss a minute of it!

Comments or Questions?  LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Copyright  2012     Larry Backlund

Saturday, June 9, 2012 6:13am CDT

70 degrees F     Clear     Calm

Sunrise  5:24am     Sunset  9:00pm

In a very unusual year, thing seems to keep being unusual.

Once the chicks hatch, usually they leave the nest within 24 hours and from that point on, they are waterbirds.

Our cute little chick seems to be intent on being the first "land loon" ever!

It seems to be our little chick that is taking the lead at times of getting back up on the nest.

When the family has come swimming back by the nest, the chick has several times been the first one to get back up on the nest, even when the parents stay in the water.

Now it is not unusual for loons to make a short visit back to the nest after the chicks have hatched and they have left the nest.  But I have never seen where they have spent this amount of time on the nest after hatching.  And then for it to be the chick that seems to be taking the lead at times is most unusual.  Or is it?

We are never able to watch behavior or loons close up like this in the wild.  Minute by minute.  24/7.

But I must say I have not seen anything like this before on the LoonCam.

A few years ago, we had a situation where one egg hatched and the other egg did not.  The loon kept coming back to the nest to incubate the unhatched egg.  And it brought the chick with it.  For about 10 days, we were privileged to watch that chick grow dramatically.  But then we made the decision to remove the egg that obviously was not going to hatch in order to break the bond with the nest.

Once the egg was removed, the bond with the nest was broken almost immediately and the loons went on with their lives.

In our case today, we have a situation where an egg did not hatch but they loons keep coming back even though the egg itself was accidentally smashed by them and it would never have hatched anyway.

Now I don't think any of us are complaining about being able to see our little chick that has such an amazing spunk and personality.  It has been wonderful and entertaining to watch him.  But there is a part of us that also just wants them to be loons.  And to move on with their lives.

Yesterday on three different occasions, the loons were on the nest for extended periods of time.  And as I said, on a couple of those occasions the chick was the one who took the lead of getting back on the nest and seemingly not wanting to leave.

So we have gone from a situation where the loons left the unhatched egg all along on the nest for several days to where now they do not seem to want to leave the nest.

Do I have an explanation for this behavior?  In a word, no.  It is something that I have not seen before.

So we continue to watch with wonder and learn from what the loons are doing.

Yesterday morning. shortly before 10am, the chick got up on the nest by himself.  He was visible on cam for a while and then wandered off to the left, apparently back in the water.

You could not see what I could see.  When I looked after some minutes, the chick was sitting on the edge of the nesting platform, just out of view of the camera.  Sitting quietly, not moving around.  Content to just lay there.

But what concerned me was that neither of the parents were around.  I couldn't see them anywhere.

Finally I spotted them way over on another part of the lake, probably a third of a mile away.  They seemed to be just swimming and diving for fish.

It made no sense to me.  A chick on the nest.  The parents off seemingly unconcerned.

I started to worry about if they had abandoned the chick just like they seemingly abandoned the remaining egg.  I had to tell myself to quite watching so close and to wonder about every little thing.  But I could not help myself.  What if I had to 'rescue' the chick?  When and why and how?

And then what would I do with it?

I am not aware of anyone ever successfully raising a common loon chick without the parents there.

Fortunately about 15 or 20 minutes later, both parents returned to the chick and they went swimming off together.  And I could relax.  This being a 'surrogate loon' parent is hard.  It is not for sissies!  And it is not something which lends itself to watching too closely.  It is not good for your peace of mind.

But it is so hard to not watch and be concerned about this little beautiful loon chick.

What will today bring?

Who knows!  It has become impossible to predict what this family will do next.

So we can only go along for the ride and enjoy every minute that we have with this little chick who in 6 short days has found his way into our hearts!

Comments or Questions?  LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Copyright 2012    Larry Backlund

Friday, June 8, 2012 6:28am CDT

67 degrees F     High Hazy Clouds     Calm

Sunrise  5:25am     Sunset  8:59pm

Two families of geese slowly make their way as they swim along the shore.

And out there, just over by the swimming raft, floats our loon with a chick on its back.

Birds sing their morning songs in the background.

It is a peaceful scene.  But so much has changed from yesterday morning.

Where yesterday morning there was an egg in the nest.  An egg that still held the hope for new life and another little loon chick.

This morning that nest is so empty and so barren looking.

For those of you who were not here last night, there was a strange conclusion to a strange season on the LoonCam with so many things that were so different.

Last night shortly after 7pm, out family of loons with the little chick decided to pay a visit and swim by the nest.  Everyone was so excited to see them again.

One of the adults decided to get up on the nest one more time.  It even had a minnow in its beak as it climbed up on the nest.

As usual it awkwardly plopped down on the nest.

But then it saw the chick swimming by the edge of the nest and immediately went back in the water.

However, when it left, everything on the nest had changed!

When it left the nest, what we now saw was a splotch of yellow next to the egg.  But the egg looked different, too.  It looked 'deformed'.

And it was.

When the loon plopped down on the egg, the egg had collapsed and its contents had squirted out onto the nest.  The pale yellow that was a mixture of egg white and egg yolk.  Thoroughly mixed and cooked in the hot summer sun.  Like a custard instead of distinct egg white and egg yolk.

There was no sign that a chick had ever started developing in that egg.

It apparently had been infertile from the beginning.

And no amount of sitting.  No amount of incubating.  No amount of waiting was ever going to produce a chick out of that egg.

So just before dark, when the loons were well away from the nest, I went out and gathered up what was left of the egg for possible analysis.  We will see if there is anything that can be learned from a squashed egg.

As I retrieved the remains, I could not help but think about and marvel at the difference between the two eggs.

Let me give you a challenge.  Here is your assignment.  Here is an egg yolk and an egg white.  Do with it what you will.  Your assignment is to make something out of it.  

What are you going to make out of it.  Will you make an omelet?  Will you make an egg over easy?  Will you just look at it with complete lack of any idea what to do with it?

What if I told you to make a loon chick out of that egg white and egg yolk?  Where would you begin?

Once again it brings home the miracle that we have witnessed with the first egg!

Who put that little loon chick in that egg?

A beautiful little black downy chick that is cute beyond words.  So full of life.  So full of spunk.  So full of wonder and curiosity.

Who formed every one of those strands of the fine soft black down on the chick?

And Who formed white down on the tummy of the chick?  And never got one strand of white down mixed up with one strand of black down.  Who numbered every one of those strands of down?

Who formed that cute little head that would bob all over?

Who formed the beak that pecked at everything in sight, including dad?

Who formed that deep black eye that beheld everything with wonder?

Who put those impossibly big clown feet on this cute little loon chick?

Who gave it a heart to beat and lungs to breathe?

Who put exactly the right muscles in the right place?  Muscles that enabled our little loon chick to scamper from one place to another.  To go in under dad's wing on one end and almost immediately appear out the other side?

Who put those cute stubby little wings in that egg?  Wings that flapped as the chick moved around.

Who told the chick exactly what he should do when mom or dad brought a little minnow and offered it to him?  Who told his body how to make energy out of that food of a little minnow?

Who designed this miracle?  This little 'toy' that moved on its own.  This little marvel that had a mind of its own?  How did they come up with the concept in the first place?  And then how did they execute that concept?  How did they make all the pieces fit together so perfectly and so miraculously?

How did they put life itself in that egg?!

I would look at the egg yolk and the egg white that had been given to me and not have a clue of where to start or what to do with it.  Other than eat it.

Never in a million years would I be able to put together this little loon chick from ingredients so simple and so common.

Never in a million years could I come up with the concept and design let alone be able to build that design.

And yet in 26 short days, Someone did just that.

Where I would just make a mess of things like the yellow mess that we saw splattered next to a broken egg shell on the nest, Someone else would make a cute little black ball of down that had personality that would not end.

That had curiosity that was unbounded.

That had LIFE!

Once again it is a profound reminder of how little I know.  Of how limited I am in what I can do.  Of how helpless I am when it comes to creating something out of nothing.  Let alone creating life itself.

Some choose to see it as "just nature".  I choose to see it as a miracle.

All I can do is stand back in awe and wonder.

And marvel at this miracle that we call 'life'!

Questions or Comments?  LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Copyright  2012   Larry Backlund

Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:29pm CDT

72 degrees F     Partly Cloudy     Calm

Ok, the retrieval of the remains of the egg went smoother than I had hoped.  Even though I had to wait for quite awhile for the loon and chick to move away and to find what felt like the right time to do it.

I was able to get it all done just before it got dark.

I was hoping to get a couple pictures before I took it off the nest but it was too dark to get a decent shot.

All of it happened without the loon being concerned or upset in the least, for which I am very grateful.  And that is why I waited.  The loon and the chick were some way out in the lake beyond the swimming raft.  The loon obviously saw me.  But he made no movement toward the nest.  He showed no sign of concern.  He made no call or noise of any kind.

I don't know if the microphone was working at the time but I tried to give you a description of what I was seeing and what I was doing.  I tried to keep my voice low, once again to keep from upsetting the loon in any way.

The egg indeed had been smashed and the yellow we saw was a combination of the yolk and the egg white.  But they were not separate or distinct at all.  They were an even pale yellow and were of a creamy consistency almost like a very creamy custard.

I imagine part of that is from the egg sitting baking in the hot sun day after day.

I expected there to be a very strong rotten egg smell.  But there was not.  The odor was slight but not entirely unpleasant.  Not that I would want to smell it a lot but it certainly was not the rotten egg smell that I expected.

There was no sign whatsoever that the egg had started to develop or that there was any blood or anything that looked like a chick.  So I have to believe that the egg was infertile and that from day one there was never any hope for a chick from this egg.

So in some ways, this might be the best ending of any difficult endings.

There never was a chick developing in the egg.  We did not lose a chick at some point.  To me the worst would have been to find that there was a chick that was almost full-term that had died in the egg.

And we did not have to make the difficult decision of when or if to remove the egg from the nest.

So we take it for what it is.  It is nature.  It happens.  And once again we have had the privilege of watching it up close, as difficult as that is sometimes.

This is the first time I have ever seen anything like this happen.

Through the years, we have had three eggs that never hatched.

But never a case like this where the loons actually broke the egg on the nest.

We will now freeze the egg remains and work with the biologists to see if there is still information that can be salvaged from the remains.

I will keep you up-to-date with any results.

Thank you all once again for your wonderful desire to learn along with us.

But it is not over yet.

We still have a beautiful little chick out there with a whole life ahead of him!

Comments or Questions?   LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Copyright  2012   Larry Backlund

Thursday, June 7, 2012 8:50pm CDT

 

Just another quick update....

 

The loon with the chick on its back has been floating back and forth  in the area of the nest.

 

Away from the nest but too close for me to safely go out there.  Not for my safety but for the safety of the chick.

 

I am not sure if I am going to be able to remove the remains of the egg yet tonight or not.  I would still like to but we are rapidly losing daylight.  And unless the loon moves a distance away from the nest, I will not be able to do it.

 

I expect that as dark approaches, he may very well stay in the area of the nest.  And where normally I would hope that he would get up on the nest with the chick and spend the night there, tonight I do not want that.  I want to be able to collect as much of the egg as I can for analysis.

 

But like everything else with a wild nest like this, we are not in control of anything.  It is all up to the loons.

 

The other loon has disappeared somewhere out onto the lake.  I have not seen her/him for some time now.

 

If I can collect the remains tonight, I will.

  

Otherwise I will see what the morning brings and how much if anything can be retrieved.

 

So I am going back down to the lake again.  

 

To wait.  And to hope.