Wednesday, August 8, 2012 12:15pm CDT

Travis Frank August 8, 2012

69 degrees F Rain Wind 6mph NE

Sunrise 6:06am Sunset 8:30pm

[Once again I apologize for the long time since I gave you an update. In addition to being out of town on a couple trips, when I came home last week, my computer had decided to go to that Great Computer Hunting Ground In The Sky! I am at a library right now so this will be a very short update. Hopefully I can give you more later.]

I will try soon to give you another installment in the report about our time banding the loons. Although it is becoming ancient history.

When I returned home last week, several neighbors asked me if I had seen our chick lately. Obviously having been out of town, I had not seen the chick.

Several of them said that they had been watching and that they had not seen the chick for a week or more.

The latest report of a sighting of the chick that I have been able to get from anyone is that one of the neighbors said they saw the chick with one of the parents one week ago Saturday night.

I have watched and I have not seen the chick in the last few days since I have been home.

I have some concern at this point but I am not ready to say that something has happened to our chick. We will just have to keep watching and hoping that he is ok and that someone will spot him soon. This chick has been so independent that anything is possible or believable.

A few days ago, I saw two loons out in front of my place. I was glad to see them. I was sure it must be the chick and one of the adults.

However, when I got the telescope out and looked at them, it turned out to be the two adults. As hard and as hopefully as I looked, I did not see the chick anywhere in the area with the adults.

I wish I had better and more positive news for you. All I can tell you is what I have seen - or not seen.

One of the neighbors said he felt that the chick had maybe been hit by a boat. But there have been no reports of the chick washing up on shore. The other possibility is that an eagle may have taken him. That is a very real possibility if he is gone. Even though he was getting large, an eagle would be fully capable of taking him.

Nature can be very unforgiving.

So let us hope that neither boats nor eagles nor dark of night have taken our spunky chick from us.

I will let you know if I find out anything definitively either way. In the meantime, we can only hope that our chick is somewhere and still doing well.

Comments or Questions? LoonCam@yahoo.com

Thursday, July 19, 2012 11:43pm CDT

Travis Frank July 19, 2012

70 degrees F Clear Calm

Sunrise 5:43am Sunset 8:54pm

[I apologize that it has taken me so long to give you this update on what went on the night we banded the loons. I have been out of town for a couple days and other things have intruded.]

I left you where we had located the female loon but she had escaped and we were not able to capture her. So now it was on to see if we could find the male loon and our chick from the LoonCam.

I refer to the female and the male and I am sure some of you are wondering how we knew which was which. You have heard me say countless times that I cannot tell the difference between the male and the female unless they are next to each other and I can see the difference in size. And from that know that in all probablility the male is the larger loon.

Or if I see one of the loons yodeling, I know that is the male.

But on this night we had neither of those clues.

So how can I say one is the male and the other the female?

I learned something that night. Kevin Kenow from the USGS, the one heading up this project [btw, he and his team are probably out on a lake right capturing more loons even now as I am writing this], said his experience has shown him that most often it is the male that is with the chick during the night and the female is somewhere nearby in the same area.

This is the opposite of what most previous research has shown about incubation on the nest. Some of that research indicated that the female typically spent slightly more time on the nest (60% vs 40%) and usually were the ones on the nest at night.

So going by Kevin's vast experience, we assumed that the male was the loon that was with the chick.

So since we were unable to capture the female, we went off in search of the male and the chick.

We had heard a call from the part of the lake where I originally expected that we would find our loons. So we headed for that area.

In fairly short order, we spotted a loon and a chick. Were they our LoonCam loons? Every expectation was that they would be.

We rapidly approached the loons keeping the bright spotlights on them so that they could not make out who or what we were. If they saw us, they would rapidly dive and disappear. But we tried to make as little noise as possible and not to alarm them.

The male swam back and forth with the chick staying close. He obviously was concerned but not panicked.

Slowly we made our way up to him.

Kevin put down his spotlight and took up the net as he leaned over the bow of the boat. Slowly we approached the loon as it swam back and forth, trying to figure out what these bright lights were.

Now the loon and chick were just a couple feet off the left side of the bow of the boat. With one deft swoop of the net, the loon was in the net and lifted high out of the water. He struggled and flapped in the net. But we had him. Now to get him safely in the capture crate.

I opened the crate and Kevin and Luke tried to get control of the loon without getting injured and without injuring the loon. In the crate it went and the cover went on securely, held down by bungee cords to make sure the loon did not knock the top off and escape. The capture crate is just a plastic storage bin like you would use in your home. Just big enough for the loon without too much extra space for it to thrash around. Airholes were drilled in the top and bottom and there was padding in the bottom to protect the loon's feet.

One loon down and six more to go!

Now we turned our attention to the chick who was still swimming in the area as our spotlights illuminated him and disoriented him.

As the boat approached, he dove. He swam right in front of the boat. In the bright light of the spotlights, you could clearly see him as he swam underwater in front of the boat only 6 to 12 inches below the surface.

With one quick scoop of the net, we had our second loon... our little LoonCam chick that we all watched and fell in love with.

Once again, the cover came off the capture bin ... this time a much smaller plastic bin more suitable for the much smaller chick. But otherwise very similar with airholes and padding in the bottom of the bin.

Things were beginning to look up. We still did not have the female, but we did have the male and the chick.

So we headed back to shore to begin the banding process.

First the loon was weighed while it was still in the capture bin. Luke recorded all the data as it was called out. Then he asked me what 'name' I wanted to give to the loon. I said that I had normally not named the loons (although I am not against it) since I could not tell one of them from the other anyway. But he explained that it didn't have to be a "name" name, but just some kind of identifier in the scientific data to help identify this loon. It was an honor to even be asked.

Like the very experienced team they are, Kevin and Steve quickly had the loon out of the bin and on a sheet on the ground. They each knew what part of the loon to control as they reached into the bin and how to control the loon on the ground.

Measurements were taken of the loons length and head and beak and legs. All of this gives a basis for comparison of these loons with other loons.

Then it was time to turn the loon over on its back without losing control of it. Obviously it was important that they coordinated the turn so that both of them turned the loon over in the same direction!

Now it was time to draw blood samples for testing. These will give indications of any accumulations of mercury or other toxins.

Then time for the bands!

Luke now asked me what color bands I wanted to use on this loon. Once again I was somewhat caught off-guard since I had not even given any thought to doing that. If I remember right, on this male loon we put "blue stripe over silver" on the left leg and "silver over geolocater" on the right leg. Things were happening so fast and so much went on that night that I am not 100% positive of that. But I will get all the details of the bands and give them to you before the loons return next spring.

After the bands had been securely placed on the loon's legs, now there was one last thing to be done. A couple feathers were clipped from both wings (the exact same feather from each wing) to also test for contaminants.

And the procedure was over on the first loon.

However, before the loon was placed back in the capture bin, I had the great honor of holding the loon while people took pictures.

Carefully I took the loon being very careful to control the head and beak and to keep the wings and feet under control.

What a humbling experience to be holding this magnificent bird that we had all watched for so many countless hours on the loon cam. I knew how big loons were from handling them before, but it was once again amazing to realize how big they really are an how strong they are.

But the loon seemed very relaxed and did not struggle or fight. Many many pictures were taken.

I am not sure what triggered it but the calmness of the loon changed quickly. Whether it was flashes from the cameras or just that he had enough of all the 'indignities', suddently I had a very strong loon on my hands that was determined to escape.

As he struggled, I concentrated on keeping control of wings and feet and especially his head and beak. I never felt any fear or concern that he was going to get away. But he was trying with all his might to do just that. At one point I think Kevin thought he might get loose because he came over to reach for the head.

But with a gentle squeeze the loon calmed down.

We placed him back into the capture bin.

Now it was time for the whole procedure to be repeated with our little chick.

All the same measurements were done.

It was then that someone said, "Larry, you're bleeding!"

I looked down at my arm and some blood was running down my arm. Apparently during the struggle, the loon had left a couple of pretty good scratches in my forearm with one of its feet. I had not even noticed it. And even now it did not hurt that much.

But while they continued to work on the chick, someone else worked on my arm!

It was decided that the chick was just a little too young and too small to be able to put a band on his leg. One of the regular bands was just big enough that it would probably slip off his leg and be lost. Any smaller band and it would probably restrict the normal growth in the loon chick's leg as it grew.

So reluctantly the decision was made to not place bands or a geolocater on the chick.

But before we were done, it was once again time for pictures and for a number of people to hold the chick.

[Click on the thumbnail to see a full size picture.]

(Photos courtesy Carrol Henderson)

Once again, what an amazing experience to hold this chick that we saw emerge from the egg just a few short weeks ago. Although he is now much larger than when we first saw him.

He was incredibly soft! There were no signs of any feathers coming in at all. It was all incredibly soft, cuddly down. And the chick did not struggle at all. He was perfectly content to be held and to have his picture taken. And every one wanted to hold him.

But then it was time for him to go back in the capture bin and back in the boat.

And we were on our way across the lake to return the male loon and the chick to the same general area where we had captured them.

Very quickly we were there and I was given the privilege to open the crate and release them.

And just like that they were back in the water and swimming together.

Seemingly no worse for the wear and now sporting some new 'jewelry'.

So two loons down and 5 more to go!

Comments or Questions? LoonCamAT yahooDOTcom

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

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