Sunday, July 15, 2012 11:13pm CDT

Travis Frank July 15, 2012

76 degrees F Clear Calm

Sunrise 5:39 Sunset 8:57pm

Today I got a chance to see all 7 of our loons on the lake - and especially our 2 adults and little chick from the LoonCam.

All of them seem to be doing well.

They have to be very alert to stay away from all the boats that speed across the lake. And with hot weather having returned to Minnesota, there were a lot of boats and jet skis out on the water.

Tomorrow night the dew point is supposed to be 77 degrees! For those of you Down South, that is sort of normal. But for us "Nanook of the North" Minnesotans, that is oppressive and almost unbearable. At least for our loons they can spend their day in the water.

The evening started with the arrival of all of the people who would make up the team for this banding. Kevin Kenow and Steve and Luke were here from the USGS. Carrol Henderson, who oversees all the non-game wildlife programs for the state of Minnesota, and Lori were here from the Minnesota DNR. Travis Frank and Lance were here from Minnesota Bound to film and document the activities of the evening.

We could not go out on the lake until 10:30 or 11:00pm until it was dark enough. Too much light, even moonlight, makes it difficult to catch the loons if they can even see your silhouette. Since we are in the last quarter phase of the moon, that helped to keep things dark.

While we waited for it to get dark enough to go looking for loons, Travis and Lance conducted a number of interviews to let people know what was going to happen this night.

I laid out for Kevin and the team where we would most likely be able to find the two families of loons -what their normal range was on the lake.

Shortly before we were ready to head out, 3 fishermen came in off the lake with a VERY nice large mouth bass - 23 inches, probably over 6 pounds. He was originally from Louisiana so he has caught some very nice southern bass, which are larger than the ones in Minnesota. But he said this was the largest bass he had ever caught in Minnesota and it was definitely going up above the mantel he said.

I told him some of the top people from the MN DNR and the USGS were here and I asked if he would be willing to show it to them I said that they would love to see it.

I think at first he was a little hesistant when I told him that some of the top people from the DNR were here! But he showed it to them and Carrol Henderson kindly took a photo of him and his bass and kindly told him he would email him a copy.

The fishermen told us they had seen a pair of loons while they were out. But they were much further away from the LoonCam than I had expected them to be. So we did not know if it was our loons or some other loons.

Just as we were ready to head out, a unique boat with a generator and HUGE banks of lights pulled up and launched. I had seen them for the first time a couple nights before. They turn on the lights and it lights up the whole area like daylight! That could cause a problem. The were bow and arrow fishermen who were out to catch some big carp.

I explained who they were to Kevin and he agreed that it could be a problem if they had lights that big and bright. But I said let me go talk to them.

So I went over and called them back into the dock.

I explained what we were going to be doing tonight and that their lights might pose a problem. So I said , "I hate to even ask you this but would you be willing to restrict your activity to a certain part of the lake away from where we expect to see the loons?"

Right away, the boat owner volunteered, "We can go to another lake if you like."

I told him "No, I hate for you to have to do that. Let's try it where you fish on this part of the lake while we work with the loons on the other parts. And if it doesn't work maybe we can come and talk to you again."

They were very agreeable and very willing and accomodating.

And so now it was our time to head out to look for loons.

Kevin, Steve, Luke, Lance and I got into the boat and out we went.

I directed them to the area where I expected we would find out LoonCam loons. But as hard as we looked, we did not see any loons. This was going to be even more difficult than even I had anticipated.

As we were going across the lake, Kevin said something that was new to me. He said that his experience has been that it is usually the male the spends the night with the chick. The female will be somewhere close by but it is usually the male who is with the chicks during the night. I had never heard that before. But that is where there is a wealth of practical experience from the USGS staff.

So Kevin suggested that we try to find and catch the female first. She would be easier to catch if we did her first and then caught the male and the chick after we had her in captivity.

Back and forth we went with Kevin and Luke in the front of the boat scanning the surface with the bright lights.

But there were no loons in sight. None. No where.

My heart sank at the possibility that we might not actually catch our loons after all this anticipation.

After going back and forth several times and not seeing one loon, we stopped and played some wail calls. And then sat and waited in anticipation. Silence. Then a couple more calls. And we waited.

Then there were a couple wails from the area where I had thought the loons would be. But we hadn't seen them there.

And then another call from across the lake ... where the fishermen said they had seen a pair of loons.

At least we knew that there were actually loons on the lake!

We decided that it was probably the male with the chick in the area I had laid out and that it must be the female all the way across the lake. Kevin was surprised that she was so far away from the male and the chick. I told him that this seemed to be a 'dysfunctional marriage'.

So we headed across the lake again to look for our female loon.

We had only gotten about half way across when there in the light we spotted her! She obviously was answering the call from the other loon and was on her way to join them.

So we circled around and started following her and trying to catch up with her.

We got almost next to her. Almost close enough for the net. Would we get our first loon of the evening? This was harder than any of us had anticipated.

Just as we got up to her, she dove with a splash!

She was gone.

We stopped and we waited. Bright lights scanned the surface of the lake. Wherever it was that she surfaced, it was outside of our spotlights. The first attempt had not been successful.

We watched and we waited.

But no female loon.

Disappointment but not despair.

Since we had not been able to capture her, we decided that we needed to go find the other loon we had heard. The one that was probably the male with the chick.

So off we went to that part of the lake.

Would this one be more successful? Would we find them? Would we be able to capture them? Or would we face the same thing that we faced with the female?

[Obviously this is going to take more than one post to tell you all that happened. I will be gone for the next couple days so it will be a couple days before I can post the next installment. Sorry to keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for the misses, near misses, successes, injuries and all the other things that happened.]

Comments or Questions? LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Friday, July 13, 2012 4:10am CDT

Travis Frank July 13, 2012

69 degrees Rain Wind 3mph S

Sunrise 5:38am Sunset 8:59pm

I have just gotten back off the lake after the banding of our loons.

And I have good news for you.

We had hoped to capture and band 7 loons.

And we did capture and band 7 loons. Or let me correct that. We captured 7 loons. And we banded 6 loons.

Our little chick from the LoonCam was just a little too small yet to put bands on him. If we had put bands on him, they probably would have been too loose and would have come off. If we put smaller bands on him, they would not allow enough room for normal growth of his leg.

But if you will pardon me, I am going to bed.

I will try to tell you more about what happened in the next couple days.

There were challenges.

But just know that the banding went well and the loons took it with relatively little stress.

So six loons are now sporting new 'bling' that they can show off to their fellow loons!

Comments or Questions? LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Tuesday, July 10, 2012 11:54pm CDT

Travis Frank July 10, 2012

63 degrees Clear Calm

Sunrise 5:36am Sunset 9:00pm

The stifling heat and humidity of last week have broken.

They are gone. And they have been replaced with absolutely spectacular summer days. Warm. Low humidity. Blue skies. And perfect lazy summer days.

But you really are not interested in a weather report are you?

You want to know about 'our' loons.

I had not seen much of them for the last couple days. And I was starting to get concerned. Was our chick alright? Where are they?

This morning I took the canoe out for a while. Looking for our chick.

It took a while. But there he was!

With one of the adults. Swimming together. Looking good and doing well.

While I was watching them, another loon flew overhead. Apparently it was the other adult because shortly after, I saw the three of them swimming together.

It seems like the chick's bond with the nest may have finally been broken. I have not seen him on the nest since before the 4th of July. Not that he hasn't been up there. He may have been. But I have not seen him up there.

He really does seem to have moved on and begun to act more like a loon.

On the 4th of July, the lake was very busy. People all over. In and on the water.

There were a lot of kids in the water, both here and at the neighbors. Splashing and yelling and having fun on a very hot day. It was the perfect place for them to be on such a hot day. But it meant that it was not the quiet place that the chick was used to coming to. And so we did not see them anywhere close.

But as afternoon faded to evening and a number of us, including adults, were cooling off in the water, I spotted the chick and the two loons straight out. They were not all that far out.

But then in spite of all the people in the water, the chick came swimming toward us.

He came in and sat near the end of the neighbor's dock even though there were many people in the water here. I was concerned about why he did not remain out with the adults, even though there was a lot of boat traffic out there.

Then I realized why.

The two adult loons had swum out further into the lake and there were now three loons out there.

Several people asked what was happening and why they seemed to be swimming peacefully together. I told them to watch for circling and excited diving and splashing if there was going to be a confrontation.

As if on cue, it all started to unfold. First the splashing dives. Not the gentle rolling dives that a loon is so good at when it is just fishing. This is a much faster and more obvious dive with a little bit of water splashed up by the loon's large feet as it goes under.

After several splashing dives then there was even the penguin dance, although I did not hear any calls.

Very soon the third loon seemed to think better of being there and rapidly rowed away as one of the loons pursued him for a short distance.

So this is why the loon chick came in toward us. Toward the safety of the dock and of shelter. How did he know? What were the signals? What were the clues? Even though we did not see it, he apparently knew that he needed to find shelter and that the presence of that third loon was a mortal danger to him.

And so he swam in toward the dock even though there were a lot of people around.

Shortly after the confrontation, the adults came in partway and the chick swam out to them and off they went.

But then I had not seen much of them until today.

I have to be honest, even though I am happy that the chick finally seems to be getting on with his life, I miss seeing him up near the dock and the nest on a daily basis. In fact, usually several times a day.

When he kept coming back to the nest, I have to be honest that I was very concerned about his apparent ease with me around. Even though I enjoyed it, I felt he was too trusting of me and maybe other humans. I even went so far as considering if I should purposely scare him in some way so that he was not so trusting.

But I could just bring myself to do it. To break that bond of trust.

So it is now gratifying to see him spend more time out in the lake even though I miss the times of him being close.

Tonight the chick and both adults were swimming straight out from the dock. But the chick made no attempt to come in to the nest which is still in the water.

Plans are still moving forward with the USGS and the Minnesota DNR to band the loons this coming Thursday night. The weather looks favorable and so hopefully it will be able to take place. I will let you know what happens.

I was excited on Sunday night when I got an email from Kevin Kenow from the USGS saying that he saved a seat in the capture boat and asked if I would like to come with him for at least some of the captures. Obviously it did not take me long to give him a resounding "YES!".

I don't remember if I have told you what the procedure is to capture and band loons.

As you know, loons are very good divers. So you cannot just come up to them and grab them.

That is why it must be done in the middle of the night.

You go by boat to the general area of the lake where you think the loons will be. Then you play a recording of loon alarm calls. The loons, thinking there is an intruder loon in the area, swim toward the alarm call. Because the presence of an intruder loon poses a very real danger to their chicks.

As the loons approach the boat and the sound of the alarm calls from the "phantom loon", you shine a bright light in their eyes so that they cannot see what is going on. And then you scoop the loon out of the water with a large muskie fishnet.

It all sounds so simple in theory.

But it is much more difficult in real life.

So we will see what happens on Thursday night.

If we are lucky and if everything falls into place, by Friday morning we will have 4 adult loons and 3 chicks all sporting new bands and data recorders.

And hopefully we will be able to add even more knowledge to what is known about loons.

Minnesota Bound and maybe one of the television stations will probably be here to film it. So hopefully you will be able to see some of the adventure at some time in the future. Whether on television or here on the internet.

I have a number of other pictures that I took of our chick and of the loons (before they finally 'moved on') and I will try to post some of them in the weeks ahead. Depending on how the banding and capture go, I may be able to get some pictures of that as well that I can post for you.

But the important thing for now is that our chick is doing well. He was 5 weeks old last Sunday morning. So he will get his first "bling" when he is 5 1/2 weeks old.

Comments or Questions? LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Monday, July 2, 2012 11:06pm

Travis Frank July 2, 2012

85 degrees Partly Cloudy Wind 1 mph S

Sunrise 5:29am Sunset 9:04pm

It has been brutally hot the last couple days. Minnesotans are not used to this heat. It was over 100 degrees here at the lake today.

Southerners may thrive in this heat and humidity.

But true Minnesotans tend to wilt. Including me.

I have often said that when it gets cold, you can always put on more clothes.

But when it gets hot, no matter what your personal limit is, there is a limit to how much you can take off!

So today it was work in preparation for a family get together on the Fourth. And then when it became unbearable, take a quick swim to cool off and then back to work.

That is take a quick swim when the loons "allowed" me to take a quick swim. Not that they really prevent me from going in the lake. It is just that I hate to do anything to disturb them when they are near.

And they are 'near' quite a bit!

Much more than I have ever seen before.

And it is all due to our chick who seems to like the nest so much that he still gets up on it several times a day. Sometimes he is on for just a short time before he leaves. And other times he is on the nesting platform for an hour or two.

He usually sits on the edge of the platform. Or in the shadow of the irises.

While he is on the nest, the adults just have to sit and wait for him to decide when he has had enough.

A few times the adults apparently decided that they had waited long enough and they just swam off into the lake. Leaving the chick behind.

But he seems perfectly happy to stay all by himself on the nesting platform. Or to just swim and float by himself near the dock.

It is a different year that is for sure. Such different behavior and so much to learn.

This morning was one of those times where the chick was contentedly all by himself flaoting near the dock.

I decided to take the camera down to the lake and see if he would let me get some pictures of him.

Not only did he let me, he seemed to be a willing participant in the photo shoot.

As I walked out near the end of the dock, I expected him to swim away.

But not our chick! I talked to him as I walked out slowly and quietly sat down on the edge of the dock. He was no more than 20 feet from me. And he could have cared less. In fact, he came swimming toward me. At times he was no more than 10 feet away. Sometimes he was so close that I had to back off the zoom because he more than filled the picture.

He would foot waggle. He would preen. Three different times he even put his beek under his little wing and tried to sleep. But the eyes would not stay shut for very long. Not more than a few seconds at a time. And then they would open. It was as if he was playing peek-a-boo through the tousled mound of brown down.

He reminds me of a teenager with the tousled hair of 'bed head'.

So I am happy to tell you that our little chick - who is not so little anymore - is healthy and doing well. Even if he does have a very independent streak in him.

And here is one view of him from this morning.

I need to play with the color balance some because the down is not quite that light as this picture shows. But I was lucky enough just to figure out how to post this picture (that I think you can click on for a full size picture) so I decide to leave well enough alone for now.

At least this gives you a picture of our little chick from just this morning.

He is 4 weeks and one day old today.

Oh how he has grown.

There does not seem to be much question of who rules the roost in this loon family. Our little chick is the one who decides when he wants to come back to the nesting platform or to stay near the dock.

I told a neighbor the other day I am not sure who is crazier, me or the loon chick.

When he is on the nesting platform, I am saying "Will you please get out of here and go out in the lake and be a loon like you are supposed to be?!"

But then when I do not see him on the nest or near the dock, I get worried if he is ok and I say "Will you get back in here where you belong?!"

Oh what these little loon chicks can do to a person!

Comments or Questions? LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Sunday, June 24, 2012 9:37pm CDT

Travis Frank June 24, 2012

65 degrees F Clear Wind Calm

Sunrise 5:25am Sunset 9:05pm

The sky is awash with a palette of pinks and golds and purples as twilight has come to the North Woods.

All of it is reflected in a now quiet lake.

The boats and jet skis and canoes and kayaks and sailboats and fishermen and waterskiiers have gone home. The busyness of today has now settled into silence.

All that is left is the reflection, ripples across the surface of the lake and the call of loons.

Ahhhhhh! Summer in Minnesota.

But first, the important questions. The ones you are wondering about.

Our little loon is healthy, active, growing and doing well.

Today is his 3 week birthday.

It was shortly after 9am on that Sunday morning 3 weeks ago that we got our first glimpse of that little ball of black down that knew exactly how to steal our hearts. There was no doubt who was in charge and was the center of attention on that nest once he arrived.

And so it has been ever since.

At times that seems like an eternity ago and in other ways it was like it was this morning.

For some unexplainable reason, he was determined to return to the nest over and over to give his adoring public just one more glimpse of him.

And he continues to do so!

He has been up on the nest at least twice today that I know of. Including just a few hours ago.

This evening, while the loons and the chick were off on another part of the lake, I took advantage of the opportunity to move the nest in even a little closer to shore. This is the fourth move I have made. It is now no more than 15 feet from the edge of the lake. But that did not stop our loon chick from getting up on the nest one more time tonight.

Right now he is somewhere out on the lake with the adults. I did not see what time he left but he continues to come back to the nest. The adults do not get up on the nest with him. He jumps up and sits on the edge of the platform and surveys his kingdom. Meanwhile, the adults swim patiently nearby until he decides that he has had enough and he jumps back in the water.

I watched him earlier today as he practiced dive after dive.

He has really gotten quite good at it. In 'junior loon olympics' he would probably rate an 8 or a 9. He has got that distinctive rolling loon dive down. Sometimes even with a splashing kick from his big feet for emphasis.

He is able to consistently stay submerged for 10 or 15 seconds and swim 20 or 30 feet underwater. Quite an accomplishment for a 3 week old kid. He seems to actually be enjoying showing off.

So whatever it is that keeps drawing him back to the nest and getting out of the water, it definitely has not hindered his form or his abilities in the water.

And the parents seem to be doing better, too.

None of the strange conflicts that we saw earlier this season.

One of the adults is always with the chick and much of the time both adults are there and are feeding him endlessly. When he rears up in the water to flap his little wings just like an adult loon does, you can see him ample white belly. He is not hurting for lack of food.

His black down from when he was born is now gone. It has been replaced by a rich chocolate brown down. But that white tummy is still as white as can be. And his big black feet are definitely loon feet when shows them by waving them in the air in a loon foot waggle.

We definitely have been limited in how much we can use the lake by his penchant for still coming back to the nest.

But last night I came home sweaty and dirty from working to clear out a beaver dam. I wanted nothing more than to go for a cool refreshing swim and to wash some of the sweat and grime off. But guess who had come back to the nest.

So I waited for a while until the chick got off the nest and swam some distance away. Finally my chance to go for a refreshing swim.

I had not been in the lake for too many minutes before the loons and the chick came swimming over my direction. They were not more than 40 or 50 feet away. I stayed submerged with only my head above water while they calmly floated and preened and watched. I hoped nobody could hear the 'mews' and the 'hoots' as I talked to them.

After some minutes, the female(?) gave a quiet short tremolo.

I said to her, 'You swim over to me and then you dare tremolo at me?!'

She showed no sign of distress or concern, just that short quiet tremolo.

Almost immediately, the male started swimming toward me. Straight at me. Not fast. Not upset. Almost more curiosity. I continued to talk to him as he approached me.

He came to within 10 feet of me and then just sat there 'while we talked'! Just my head out of the water. Eyeball to eyeball.

No concern. No agitation. No call. Just sitting watching. He even rolled over partway and did some preening and did a foot waggle.

It was as if he was saying, 'Yeah, she told me I had to come and check you out. She said isn't he supposed to be up on shore? What is he doing out here with us?'

Then the loon dove.

There was still no sign of aggression but a loon diving that close to you is not to be taken lightly.

So I stood up to see if I could see where he was.

There he is. He was swimming right along the bottom of the lake. I was standing in about 5 feet of water. He swam within a foot of my right leg but made no moves toward me. he seemed to be checking me out both above water and below water. He surfaced about 20 feet behind me. Almost immediately he dove again.

This time I tried to see where he was but I could not see him.

Once again he surface about 15 feet on the other side of me.

He sat and looked at me once more.

Then after maybe half a minute he gave two short quiet tremolos.

I said, 'Ok I will go in and leave the lake to you' and I started toward shore.

[He yelled after me, 'Don't be offended. As a self respecting male loon I have to make them think I chased you away from my chick! Come back again sometime!']

When I reached shore one of the neighbors said, "Now that is what I call 'Swimming With Loons!".

So tonight you can rest assured that our loons are doing well.

He is now out of danger from most predators except eagles and snapping turtles and fast boats and jet skis. His odds of survival to reach adulthood and fly south this fall have increased dramatically even over the last week.

And our little chick is not so little anymore and he is thriving.

Comments Or Questions? LoonCamATyahooDOTcom

Or even if you don't have a comment or a question, if you leave your name and email address I will be sure to try to let you know when the LoonCam is ready to go live next spring.

Minnesota Bound

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