Tuesday, May 6, 2014 11:47pm CDT

Guest User May 7, 2014

55 degrees F Clear Wind 5 mph E

I apologize for not giving you an update since last Friday.

I was hoping to give you good news that we were "live". Which we are not ... yet!

Let me fill you in on that in a second.

But first, let me give you an update on what you are MOST interested in ... our LOONS!

The loons have been around and have shown some interest in the nest and have actually been up ON the nest a few times. The first time I saw them up on the nest was last Friday. And they were up there when I came home this afternoon.

Now having said that, let me put it in perspective for you. I know that you are very frustrated and feeling that you are missing a lot. And I fully understand that frustration. And we are still working on trying to get everything up and working again. But you have not missed a lot of action.

Out of a 24 hour day, the loons have been on the nest a maximum of 5 or 10 minutes each day. That is well over 99% of the time that they are not on the nest or around the nest.

Having said that, I understand how special each and every appearance it.

I still cannot believe everything that has happened this year.

Early on, it seemed that everything was working perfectly and that we would be able to have the nest out and the camera on the day the ice went out. Reality proved to be different.

The good folks at Broadband have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

They were out last Friday working on things for many hours. All to no avail.

They have ordered a number of pieces of new equipment, including a new camera, which are supposed to arrive by FedEx tomorrow. When we replace all those things with new equipment, hopefully it will take care of the problems and we will soon be able to send you the LoonCam!

We will be anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new equipment and working on things as soon as it comes.

I think I found out tonight exactly what had happened. Or at least confirmed what we had expected about a lightning strike in one of the storms last week.

I was talking to one of the neighbors tonight and he was asking how soon the LoonCam would be live. I told him some of what had happened and that I suspected a lightning strike when I was out of town.

He right away told me he knew EXACTLY when it happened!

Late one night during one of the storms, he said there was a HUGE flash of light that lit up the inside of their house and there was an immediate huge BOOM! He said there was no delay between the light and the boom - they were simultaneous. So he knew it had struck nearby but he did not know where.

He said the dogs almost hit the ceiling and went wild.

He went out and looked around but could not find any sign of the lightning strike nor was anything on fire. So he put it out of his mind.

Until I told him about all the things that had been knocked out and then he immediately remembered it.

So apparently that is what did all the damage.

Once again, it is a great reminder of how powerful nature is and how weak we are in the face of it. And it is a reminder of how wonderful it is when everything works 'just right' to bring you the LoonCam. I sometime - many times - sort of just expect that all the things that need to work together just perfectly WILL work perfectly.

But life is not quite so simple.

Just know that we are working hard to try to bring you our beloved loons as soon as we can.

Take comfort know that you have not missed any of the main event yet.

But the clock is ticking. And I am every mindful of that.

Thank you all for your love and support and concern. You are the BEST!

Comments or Questions? LoonCam@yahoo.com

Friday, May 2, 2014 1:36 pm CDT

Guest User May 2, 2014

55 degrees Mostly Cloudy Wind SW 4 mph

Sunrise 6:00am CDT Sunset 8:20 pm CDT

Have you ever had days that seemed "snakebit"?

I feel that they last week has been that way.

After I last wrote to you late on Saturday night, I was gone for a couple days (in fact gone on a couple short trips this week) but I fully expected to come home and see the camera up and working and it also being online so that YOU could see it as well.

Small problem.

When I got home, I had no phone and no internet! No camera.

There had been a LOT of rain while I was gone and it was still raining when I got home. But there had also apparently been storms and lightning.

The storms apparently had fried some stuff.

When the cable company was finally able to come out, they confirmed that the modem which sends all of the pictures and sound to you was indeed fried. And he said that we had had some pretty severe lightning while I was gone and he was dealing with a lot of this type of damage.

Once we got that fixed, we still did not have any picture from the camera. Apparently the camera or something else had been hit as well.

It appears that the lightning may have taken out a couple channels on a router and may also have taken out the camera itself.

So even as I write this, the good folks from BroadbandMN are once again making the trek halfway across the state to bring camera. They have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

So once more, a little while ago I ventured out into the icy, painful water to retrieve the camera off the nest!

Now we wait for a few hours until they arrive with the new camera and hopefully we are able to fix the source of the problem.

There IS, however some good news!

When I had to go back out to the nest a little while ago to retrieve the camera, it was the first time that I had actually seen the nest since I had to go out there in the wind and the waves and the sleet last Tuesday.

All week long, with the heavy rains, we have also had high winds.

The winds created large rolling waves that rocked the nest and that splashed up over it.

On Tuesday when I was out by the nest, I did not see that the loons had been up on the platform nor rearranged any of the nesting materials.

In fact, I have hardly seen the loons.

They can be difficult to spot on a calm lake.

But on a lake roiled by large and threatening waves, it is almost impossible to see them. In addition to that, they will sometimes try to find a spot that is a little more sheltered from the wind and waves.

But this afternoon when I had to go out to retrieve the camera, it looked like there had been some rearrangement of the nesting materials. Had the loons been up there? It looked like they had. There was not much movement of materials. But they may have been up there.

I didn't see them anywhere in sight when I went out to the nest so I cannot say for sure that they had been up on the nest. But at least there was hope.

As I was finishing removal of the camera from its mount, THERE was one of the loons!

Swimming out a ways from me. Watching me.

And then the second loon!

They were definitely interested in what I was doing. And interested in the nest.

Neither loon called nor were they upset. Nor did they swim near.

They just watched.

Then as I left with the camera, they swam away.

Where had they been?

I don't know. I had looked for them and saw them nowhere.

But they had seen me!

And when they saw me they immediately swam toward the nest to see what was going on.

So far, they have not gotten serious about nesting nor have they spent time near or on the nest. But just the fact that they are closely watching the nest is a good sign.

When the good people from Broadband get here, hopefully we will be able to get the camera (and everything else that must work together perfectly) up and running and hopefully soon we will be able to bring you pictures from the LoonCam once more.

Questions or Comments? LoonCam@yahoo.com

Saturday, April 26, 2014 11:45 pm CDT

Guest User April 27, 2014

44 degrees F Raining Wind 3mph ENE

Sunrise 6:07 am CDT Sunset 8:14 pm CDT

The nest is in the water!

And hopefully the camera will be able to go live soon.

Remember, the ice went out of the lake on Wednesday. It is hard to believe that it was only a week before that we had about 18 inches of snow!

As soon as the snow melted so that I could get to the nest, I had most of it ready. I mounted the camera on the nest and fired it up. Not knowing what to expect after it being idle for almost a year. Surprisingly it worked immediately.

However the night vision infrared light did not work.

After some extended trouble shooting, I finally got the infrared light working as well.

It looked like all was ready to finish nest preparation and put the nest in the lake on Thursday.

Small problem.

On Thursday morning, the camera was not working at ALL!

We worked and worked on it Thursday and Friday. To no avail!

It seems that heavy rain overnight had shorted the camera out and possibly fried it completely.

So the good folks at BroadbandMN made the long trek halfway across the state to bring out a new camera. As we went through everything, it turned out that it was one of the connectors, NOT the camera itself, that had fried. When we replaced that connector, the camera fortunately started working.

But then last night, the infrared light was not working again.

So after midnight when it was dark enough to see if it was working or not, it was back down to the lake and rewiring everything. And now the infrared is once again working.

Why am I telling you all this?

For sympathy?

No.

But it is just one more reminder - or several reminders - of how many things that must work together perfectly to bring you the LoonCam.

And if only one of those goes down, we are not able to watch our loons.

So say a few extra prayers that everything continues to work well. We can get complacent and just think that things will always work. But there are many things that are totally out of our control.

A perfect example of that is last year when the loons did not even nest!

So hopefully it will be very soon that I can tell you that the LoonCam is LIVE!

If you have any comments or questions, or want to be notified of when we are live, send them to LoonCam@yahoo.com.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014 11:35pm CDT

Guest User April 24, 2014

40 degrees F Cloudy Wind 2 mph E Sunrise 6:12 am CDT Sunset 8:10 pm CDT

The ice went out of the lake overnight!

It is always amazing to see the difference in the lake that only a few hours can make.

What had been a sheet of black ice covering the lake is now a sea of liquid. A beautiful northern Minnesota lake. A liquid lake instead of a sheet of ice. A lake always changing and always in motion.

There are swans and eagles and seagulls and mergansers and geese and ducks of every description.

This morning I saw a pair of loons swimming nearby so I think they are already looking for the nest. They are the ones we have been waiting for. They are the ones that really make this complete and make it a northern lake.

Last night there was a lot of calling back and forth across the lake even though it was mostly covered with ice.

The wails and the tremolos echoed through the night air.

Then there was three loud yodels.

I had thought that the single loon I had seen before was maybe a female. But the yodels told me that there was a male on the lake and he was on this side of the sheet of ice!

With his yodels, he was telling everyone who could hear (which was the entire lake) that he was staking out the territory on this side.

That is encouraging to see and hear.

Now we can do some of the final work on the camera and the nest and get it ready to put in the lake.

We are getting close!

And it is getting exciting.

Hopefully the last preparations will come together without any major problems and you will be able to see the LoonCam soon!

Tell your family and friends and everyone else to get ready.

If you have any comments or questions or would like to leave your email address for possibly updates or notifications, send them to LoonCam@yahoo.com.

Saturday, April 19, 2014 4:07 pm CDT

Guest User April 19, 2014

63 degrees F Cloudy with rain approaching Wind Calm

Sunrise 6:20 am CDT Sunset 8:04 pm CDT

WE HAVE A LOON!

The lake is still more than 80% ice covered. But there is some open water around the edges.

Overnight and today a very gentle breeze has moved the ice sheet and now there is more open water on this side of the lake.

Early this morning my neighbors said that they had heard a loon on the lake!

I did not see or hear anything until about 3 pm today.

I had looked earlier with the binoculars but I did not see anything. Nor hear anything.

Then I saw a dark shape dive in the distance.

I could not be sure what it was. It surfaced and dove several times more. But even with the binoculars I could not get a good view of it. Good enough that I could say for sure it was a loon.

Then it surfaced once more and turned sideways.

There was no mistaking that unique profile of a loon.

THERE WAS ONE LOON BACK ON THE LAKE!

I called to it.

And it answered. Several times.

So now the season starts!

The nest is still under some of the new snow so it is impossible to do more work on it and to get the camera and other equipment working. Which we will do hopefully in the next few days.

Easter Sunday is forecast to be sunny with a high of 70 degrees.

Sheer heaven for Minnesotans who have endured this seemingly endless winter!

But even if we have everything working, we cannot put the nest out in the lake until all the ice goes out. Even though there is some open water here, if the wind should push the ice sheet this way, it would destroy everything in its path.

Especially a nest and a camera.

So once again we wait.

But at least we know that ONE loon has returned!

Comments or questions or just to have your email put on the notification list, send them to LoonCam@yahoo.com

Minnesota Bound

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