Saturday, May 10, 2014 6:20 am CDT

Guest User May 10, 2014

32 degrees F Clear Calm

Sunrise 5:49am CDT Sunset 8:30 pm CDT

On a beautiful, chilly spring morning, a loon has just slipped off the nest into a lake that is like a huge mirror.

Little wisps of fog drift across an otherwise totally still lake.

The sun has not been up for many minutes. And the rest of the world around the lake is starting to wake up.

There is frost on the car and on the grass. But where the sun has hit, the frost is already losing its battle.

After an interesting few days of work to repair damage from a lightning strike, the LoonCam is once again live for another season!

It was so interesting yesterday afternoon to watch what happened.

Since the nest was put out in the water 2 weeks ago today, the loons have been on or around the nest less than 1% of the time. But as soon as the camera was turned on yesterday, the loons were immediately ON the nest. Not just once, but a couple different times.

In the course of that first hour or two after the LoonCam was turned on, the loons were around the nest more and longer than they had been since the ice went out of the lake two and one half weeks ago.

It was as if they had been waiting for you to show up. There was no need to come unless you were here to say HI to them. And as if they were saying, "I am ready for my close-up, Mr. deMille!"

I sat here watching it with a smile on my face and shaking my head in disbelief at the timing.

They have already been in this morning and on the nest and now are swimming away to fish and relax. They have a lot of work and responsibility ahead of them and they will need all the energy they can muster.

I have been able to identify one of the loons of this pair. It is the male that we banded in 2012.

You may remember that he was also the one that showed up at the nest last year. But he showed up with a new mate. The female from 2012 also came back 3 weeks earlier than the male but he came back with a new female several weeks late. And then they did not nest at all last year.

I have not gotten a real good look at the female this year to definitively say who she is. But from what I have seen, it does not look like she has bands. So I think that it may be the same unbanded female from last year.

We will just have to wait and see what this year brings.

Today is Fishing Opener in Minnesota when tens of thousands of people head to the lakes. So it could be a busy day on the lake for our loons.

I hope that you enjoy the broader view with the new camera. The shoreline that you see at the upper part of the screen is about a mile away.

But for now, settle back in your chair and enjoy a beautiful spring day on a northern lake in Minnesota!

Does it get any better than this?!!!

Comments or Questions? LoonCam@yahoo.com

Friday, May 9, 2014 3:15 pm CDT

Guest User May 9, 2014

WE ARE LIVE!!!

Thank you all for your patience and your understanding.

Sometimes Mother Nature can throw good curve balls.

And thank you for the good folks at Broadband and for all their work!

They are still not spending much time on the nest but have increased their interest.

I hope that you also enjoy the increased view of the lake that we are able to give you with the new cam.

Enjoy our BEAUTIFUL LOONS!

Comments or Questions? LoonCam@yahoo.com

Wednesday, May 7, 2014 11:37 pm CDT

Guest User May 8, 2014

56 degrees F Thunderstorms Wind 5mph NE

Sunrise 5:52 am CDT Sunset 8:26 pm CDT

We are right now under severe thunderstorm warnings through tomorrow night.

Even though it is not storming right now here at the lake, there are storms all around us. And there is non-stop lightning all around. We don't need any more of that!

Let me give you something humorous to visualize in all of this.

Last night I got a call from FedEx saying they had a package they were going to deliver before 10:30 am today and asking me if I was going to be home to sign for it. I assured them I was going no place!

About 9:30 this morning I heard a truck. When I looked out the window, the FedEx truck was parked at the end of my driveway and the FedEx man was literally running up to the house carrying a big box! He rang the doorbell and immediately pounded on the door. He handed me the package and said I needed to sign for it.

As soon as I signed, he actually went on a full out run back to his truck.

Before he even got back out to his truck, a UPS truck pulled up right behind him.

And a UPS driver came on a full run carrying another box!

Almost as if FedEx and UPS were in a race to see who could get the new equipment here first.

It was humorous to watch to say the least.

But here was a new camera from New York City and some other equipment from Memphis, TN. It was one more reminder of how many people from across the country that it takes to make the LoonCam work!

We spent the rest of the day hooking up the new equipment and going through other debugs.

I am happy to say as of tonight, the camera is working!

We are not live yet but at least we are almost back to where we were a couple weeks ago.

Apparently Broadband has to still do some stuff to download and replace some software before they are able to upload the video from the camera. And do some other tweaking with the sound and other things. It is amazing what a simple "little" bolt of lightning can do.

Last night one of the next door neighbors saw me out working in the garden and he came over and asked when the camera was going to go live. I told him some of the challenges that we had been faced with. And that apparently there had been a lightning strike when I was out of town for a couple days last week.

Immediately he said, "I know exactly when that happened!"

One night during one of the storms, he said the whole inside of their house lit up and there was a HUGE boom of thunder. He said there was no delay between the light and the thunder.

He said the dogs hit the ceiling and went wild.

Because there was no delay between the flash of lightning and the thunder, he knew that it had struck very close.

So that confirms what we thought had happened.

Now to the loons!

At 6:40 this morning the loons came to the nest and one of them got up on the nest for about 5 minutes.

That is the only time I have seen them near the nest today - until I was out mounting the new camera on the nest. After I had been working on it for about half an hour, the saw me from wherever they were on the lake and swam in to see what I was doing.

I immediately left (I would have to finish some of the other stuff later) and they swam away after I left, without coming up to the nest, apparently comfortable that I was no danger to them or their nest.

It is a good sign that they are keeping an eye on the nest and visiting it once in a while and showing ownership of it.

Fortunately so far you have not been missing any of the action. I apologize that we have been faced with such challenges this year. And we are working hard to get it up and running. Anthony from Broadband has been home with the flu all week and yet he spent hours on the phone with me today as we worked through all the issues of hooking up new equipment. Truly going way beyond the call of duty to bring the LoonCam to you. THANK YOU, Anthony!

Hopefully you will be able to see it very soon. They are working hard on it.

Comments or Questions? LoonCam@yahoo.com I will still try to send everyone an email notification of when we are actually live with the cam. If you want a notification, send your email and I will try to notify everyone.

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

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