Sunday, May 11, 2014 5:24 am CDT

44 degrees F     Partly Cloudy     Wind Calm

Sunrise   5:47 am CDT     Sunset   8:31 pm CDT

The first light of morning paints the eastern sky a soft pink that is reflected in a huge mirror of a northern lake.

The birds and the rest of the world are just beginning to wake up.

Our loons have yet to make their first visit to the nest this morning, although they will probably be here soon.

Yesterday they made several visits to the nest, including the first mating of the year that I have witnessed!

There has been increased interest in the nest and increased amount of time on and around the nest.  Although they are still away from the nest much more than they are on the nest.

But the increased nest building and mating are encouraging signs.  And hopeful signs that they will use the nest this year and lay eggs.  Unlike last year when they did not nest at all.

I would expect that over the next few days you will see them spend more and more time on the nest, with increased nest building activity.  Until finally they lay probably two eggs.

One of the interesting observations is that so far it seems to be the male that has been doing 90% of the nest building activity.  That is a question that I have had for sometime but could never tell without the loons being banded.

But at least in this case this year, the male of this pair is doing the majority of the nest building.

Some of you have asked if there will be sound this year.  I am hoping so.  And I am hoping that as the good people from Broadband continue to go through all the issues caused by the lightning and reprogram things, the sound will come back.  I apologize and I know how much the sound adds to the whole experience.

It looks like right now somewhere along the line the cam feed has gone down.  Hopefully it is just temporary.  Just know it has been reported and  hopefully it will be restored soon.

I have checked and the cam is sending a beautiful picture from here so it will be a matter of people finding out where the signal is being dropped.  So it does not appear to be a repeat of the camera itself or other equipment here failing.  Once again we are reminded of how many things must work together perfectly to bring you the LoonCam!

We want you to be able to enjoy the loons and this beautiful spring morning.  This Mother's Day!

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam@yahoo.com

Copyright 2014  Larry R Backlund

Saturday, May 10, 2014 6:20 am CDT

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

Copyright 2014 Larry R Backlund

Friday, May 9, 2014 3:15 pm CDT

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

Copyright 2014     Larry R Backlund

Wednesday, May 7, 2014 11:37 pm CDT

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.

Copyright 2014    Larry R Backlund