Tuesday, May 27, 2014 10:45 pm CDT

57 degrees F     Clear     Wind 2 mph WNW

Sunrise   5:31 am CDT     Sunset  8:49 pm CDT

Egg Hatch Expected Sometime June 6 - 11

Today has been a cloudy, rainy, cool day.

It has been a quiet  day on the lake.  Most of the boaters and fishermen have gone home.  And the residents are either back to work or resting up from all their Memorial Day activities.

That has also made it a much quieter day for our loons.

Amazingly, our female loon who has been so reluctant to stay on the nest for any length of time today spent most of the day on the nest.  The longest I have seen her on the nest.

And then she was on the nest again for about 3 hours this evening.

So if it is because she is young and inexperienced, she seems to be starting to figure out how this whole thing works.

But any little thing today would still send her into hangover.  Luckily there were not many 'little things' today.

I have come to find it an easy way to determine which loon is on the nest when I am outside working.  All I have to do is walk around to the front of the house.  And if the loon immediately goes into hangover, I know it is the female.  

Whereas, I can go down to the lake or even mow the lawn and the male will sit undisturbed with his head held high.

That has been the norm for most of these years until this year with this female loon.

But she has done much better today.  So we will see what the next two weeks are like.

For those of you who are new this year, last year the loons did not nest on this nesting platform.  Nor did the other pair of loons on the lake nest either.

I do not have any explanation for that.  It was the first time in 10 years or more of doing this that the loons have not nested on the platform.  So it is good to see them back on the nest once again this year.

We apparently had a change of mates last year.  It was the same male as the previous year, 2012.  But it was a different female from the year before.  I am assuming that this year we are watching that new female from last year.

The change of mate may explain why they did not nest last year.  

And it may also explain why she is so easily spooked this year if she is young and inexperienced.  There is no way of knowing for sure but that would be my best guess right now.

A couple days ago I had given you a YouTube video that showed the development of a common chicken egg.

http://www (dot) youtube (dot) com/watch?v=PedajVADLGw

We are now at the halfway mark for our loon eggs, give or take a day.

So it you look at the chicken egg video, you can see how far along our loon chicks probably are if you look at the 10 or 11 day mark on that video.

If we use that as a rough guide, our loon chicks now have their mouths open, claws have begun to develop and tail feathers have started to appear.

It is amazing how much has already happened.

And even more amazing how much more will happen in less than two weeks!

Now is the time to let everyone know what is happening.

Because these next few days will go so very fast.

And then within about 24 hours after the chicks hatch, they will leave the nest and will probably never return.

So our window of opportunity to watch them is so fleeting and so quickly it is gone.

Tell your family.  Tell your friends.  Tell your neighbors.

And tell any teachers you know.  This is one of the greatest opportunities for teachers to use to teach children about the miracle of birth.  And the kids can see it first hand on the LoonCam.

Now the pace picks up.

And the excitement mounts.

Questions or Comments?   LoonCam (at) yahoo (dot) com

Copyright 2014     Larry R Backlund

Memorial Day, May 26, 2014 6:50 am CDT

63 degrees     Cloudy     Wind Calm

Sunrise   5:32 am CDT     Sunset   8:48 pm CDT

Expected Egg Hatch  June 6 - 11

First of all, Happy Memorial Day to you and to all our veterans.

We especially remember and honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we do.

So that we can enjoy something so simple and yet so profound as watching loons on the LoonCam.

It was exactly two weeks ago this morning that we saw the first egg being laid.

So officially we are half way to the hatch, although from what we have seen in previous years, we are probably a little more than half way.

The earliest that I would expect to see the egg hatch would be Friday, June 6th and they should for sure hatch by Wednesday, June 11th.  It is hard to believe that the first possible hatch date is only a week from this coming Friday!  Where has the time gone already?

If they have not hatched by the 11th, then there would be cause for concern of whether they will hatch.

But now we have something to aim for.  We have our eyes on the prize!

And is there a man or woman alive with a heart so hard that when they see one of the little black downy loon chicks they don't just reflexively say, "Awwwwww!".

To see those little black chicks so full of life is one of the true miracles of nature.  How can it be that in 4 short weeks we have gone from and egg to a little loon chick?  To have gone from eggwhite and yolk and shell to a beautiful little chick with personality that will steal anyone's heart.

So we are privileged not only to see the beautiful loons we love so much, we are privileged to see the miracle of life itself!

I have been surprised that there has not been even more boat traffic than there has been over the last couple days.  Temperatures have been in the low 80s and people have been out enjoying the lakes across Minnesota.

Today there is a forecast of possible rain later today so that will help to keep down some of the traffic on the lake.  Our male loon seems to take it all in stride.  But the female gets concerned and goes into 'hangover' at the slightest little movement or activity, no matter how far away it is.

We had our family get together yesterday.  And I have to give the kids credit for understanding that while the loons are on the nest, they can't go swimming or use the canoes or the paddleboats or go waterskiing.  So they went to another part of the lake yesterday to go swimming and skiing.

I got a kick out of my neighbors night before last.  They were sitting out in front of their place as I came down to the lake with a pitchfork.

Out beyond the nest, there was a canoe, a boat and a pontoon all slowly passing by.  Staying out side the buoys but all wanting to see the loons.  My neighbor called over to me and said "Boy, it is a popular place, isn't it?"  And then he kiddingly said, "What do you have that pitchfork for?"  I laughed and pointed out to all the people on the lake.

Actually, it had nothing to do with that!  And I fully understand why people love loons and want to see them as close as they can.  I am the same way.

But actually what I had the pitchfork for was that there was a huge dead carp that had washed up on shore.  It had to be at least 15 or 20 pounds.  I had come down to get it and bury it before it got too bad.

Today, once again watch the for the difference in reaction of the male loon while he is on the nest versus the female loon.  The male seems to be much more relaxed and confident and keeps his head held high most of the time while the female is likely to lower her head and go into 'hangover' at the slightest little thing.  It has been so interesting this year to see such a big difference in the reaction of the two loons.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

And remember the brave men and women who have given so much for us.

Questions or Comments?   LoonCam (at) yahoo (dot) com

Copyright 2014   Larry R Backlund

Sunday, May 25, 2014 5:26 am CDT

50 degrees     Clear     Calm

Sunrise   5:33 am CDT     Sunset   8:47 pm CDT

Our male loon sits faithfully on the eggs this morning.

Once again it is him that has pulled the overnight shift, as he has done so often.  He is now at almost 9 hours on the nest since he got on last night.

It is way too early to know if this is the norm or if this loon couple is different that most others.

The conventional wisdom is that loons share nesting duties about equally with the female doing slightly more than the male.  That sure is not the case with this pair.  The male here has been performing by far the majority of the time on the nest.

Plus he is not as easily spooked as the female is.

I see another loon swimming not too far out in the lake, so maybe we will see a change of nest duty soon.

Today is forecast to be another spectacular Minnesota spring day.  Sunny.  Highs in the 80s and little wind.

But there will probably be a lot of activity on the lake on the Memorial Day Sunday as people cannot wait to get out to the lake.

Over the last couple days, a few of you have commented about something floating on the surface of the water around the nest and wondered whether it was mayflies.

No, we have not had our mayfly hatch yet.

What you see floating on the water is the "cotton" from the poplar trees blooming.  This time of year we can have quite a bit of it floating in the air and on the lakes.

Just another one of the signs of spring and of new life.

As you watch our loons today, let me mention a couple other things about the floating nesting platform that you may look for.

In the upper right hand corner of your picture, you may see some "sticks" poking up from the corner of the raft.

These are willow branches.

Although you can only see the bottom portion of the branches, they are about 5 feet tall.  There are also branches on the corner with the camera.  Behind the camera.

These branches are intended to be a deterrent to  keep eagles from being able to swoop down on the nest.  So far through the years they seem to have worked.

There is an interesting reason why I have chosen willow branches.

These branches will actually form roots in the water and by the end of the season of the LoonCam, they will have quite the root ball on them.  Plus they will actually leaf out even though they are growing only in water.

One of the many little details that are meant to help keep our loons safe.

Also, you might look to the left side of the nesting platform.

You may be able to make out what looks like some kind of a rope in the lower left hand corner.  You can see it better when it moves as the raft rocks on the waves.

That is exactly what it is.  A rope.

Some of you may remember a couple years ago when the camera almost went into the lake.  It had been a very windy, wavy day and the nest was really rocking on the waves.  That repeated motion was enough to loosen the camera mount and all of a sudden the whole 'world' was at an angle.

That was one time I had to go out to the nest.  Something I hate to do and try to avoid at all costs.  But it was necessary to save the camera.

I tried to decide what I could do in just the couple minutes that I would have out there.

While I was out there, I pulled the camera back into position and  quickly attached a rope to the camera mount to keep it from going in the lake.  We barely saved the camera.  It would not have been many minutes before it would have gone in the lake and been destroyed.

We have not had that happen before or since.  But the next year I redid the camera mount and I have kept the rope in place for 'insurance'.

For those of you who are new to the site or were not here earlier this year when I mentioned the plants on the nest, the greenery that you see along the edges of the nest is a combination of irises and daylilies.

With the cold spring, they are behind in their growth this year.  But they seem to be coming along.

The plants serve 2 purposes.

They are just meant to add some color and life to the nest and also to give some cover to the loons as they are on the nest.

The roots that grow from the plants also help to stabilize the nesting material and help to keep it from washing away in high waves.

I chose irises for a particular reason.

It is a tribute to a bygone era.

The iris is essentially the French fleur-de-lis.

Back in the 1600s, at the height of the fur trading era, French voyageurs plied the lakes along the Minnesota-Canada border and all the way out to British Columbia and the Northwest Territories in search of furs.  Especially beavers.

Each year they would bring their furs from the winter trapping season to Grand Portage on the North Shore of Lake Superior and trade them for other trade goods that they would bring back to trade with the native Americans for the next year.  And the beaver pelts would go to Europe to make hats.  

Especially in England where no proper gentleman would be caught dead without a beautiful beaver felt hat. The felt made from beaver fur.  And those beavers came from right here in Minnesota.

In today's dollars, it was a multi-billion dollar business.  Long before any of the rest of the country had been settled, these intrepid voyageurs were traveling hundreds and hundreds of miles by canoe trapping and selling furs and trading with the natives.

The route they traveled now makes up the international border between the US and Canada.  And that route is preserved in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

That is a long way to get to the short point I was trying to make.

To this day, there are irises at some of the portages throughout the Boundary Waters, that it is said the French voyageurs brought to the area back in the fur trading days.

So that is why I chose irises to plant on the loon nest!

What more appropriate thing for the Great North heritage?

Loons and irises!

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam (at) yahoo (dot) com

  Copyright 2014  Larry R Backlund

Saturday, May 24, 2014 5:26 am CDT

54 degrees F     Clear     Wind Calm

Sunrise   5:33 am CDT     Sunset   8:46 pm  CDT

Once again, it is a spectacular "Minnesota morning" on the lake for our loons!

There are just a few ripples on the water.  The pink of the impending sunrise gilds the eastern sky.

Birds are singing like there won't be time to sing later.

And our faithful male loon is still sitting on the eggs, waiting for new life to emerge.

We are not quite half way through the incubation cycle.  But already new life is stirring within the eggs.  Oh to be able to see the miraculous changes that are taking place inside those eggs.

But like the loons, we will have to just wait.

But unlike the loons, we are not the ones who must be ever aware and ever faithful in making sure the eggs are warm and taken care of.

Last night the male loon had to contend with the carp fishermen coming by at least two times.  They did keep a respectful distance from the nest.  But their lights did not.  The male loon stayed on the nest and surprisingly the very bright lights do not seem to concern him all that much.

And when I say "bright lights", I mean bright lights!

The boats have their own generators and huge banks of lights on three sides of the boat.  They literally light up the whole shoreline almost like daylight.

But our male loon seems to take it all in stride.

He has once again put in about a 12 hour shift overnight.

I am not sure how the female would react if it was her on the nest when the carp fishermen came by.  She continues to be very reticent and shy about any movement or activity.  She is probably the most "shy" loon that I have ever witnessed.

About 8 pm last night, there was a "war of words" between 'our' pair of loons and another pair of loons on the lake.

Yodels and tremolos were tossed back and forth over and over as they challenged each other.

Fortunately, it was just a war of "words" and not an actual physical battle.  The two pair of loons never came near each other.  They just called back and forth and said, "Oh yeah?!  So's your momma!"

This might be a good time to review what the different loon calls mean so that you know what they are saying when you hear them.  Whether that be here on the LoonCam or when you are at a northern lake that has loons and have the joy of listening to them.

For those of you who are new to the LoonCam, you may have never heard a loon call.  And for the rest of us, it is a good refresher course in "loon talk".

Once you have heard your first loon call in the wild, it is something that never leaves you.  That haunting call is so magical it can send chills up and down your spine.  And every time you hear it, you are transported to a wilderness campsite on a lake or to a cabin on some northern lake where you have heard the magic of a loon calling at sunset.

I don't think there is any other call in the world that has quite the same hold on our spirits as that of a Common Loon.

It is the call that made Katherine Hepburn say to Henry Fonda, "Come here, Norman.  Hurry up.  The loons!  The loons!  They're welcoming us back!" in the movie On Golden Pond.

There are 4 basic calls:

1.  The wail.
2.  The tremolo
3.  The yodel  and
4.  The hoot.

I usually divide the calls down into 2 and 2.  Two 'good' calls and two 'bad' calls - even though there is no such thing as a 'bad' call.

I call them that because 2 of the calls are simply loons talking to each other.  The other 2 calls are alarm calls.  Calls that they make when they are concerned or something is wrong.

The wail and the hoot are 'good' calls while the tremolo and the yodel are 'bad' calls, or calls of alarm.  You can actually hear all 4 of the calls at http://blog.syracuse.com/indepth/2008/07/audiohearthecallsoftheco(dot)html  [Just replace the (dot) with an actual dot.]

1.  The wail - The wail is a call that loons make to say "I am here.  Where are you?"  The call carries long distances over water and allows the loons to keep in touch with each other even if they cannot see each other.  The first cell phone!  It is a 'good' call and it is made by both the male and the female.

2.  The tremolo- The tremolo is a distress call.  The loon is expressing his concern over something or someone.  When one loon tremoloes, usually there is an answering tremolo from other loons on the lake.  At night, this can be so haunting as you hear the calls echo back and forth across the lake.  It is a 'bad' call because something has upset or caused concern to the loon.  Both the male and the female make the tremolo call.

3.  The yodel- The yodel is also a distress call.  ONLY the male makes the yodel.  Often he is staking out his territory on the lake.  He is saying "This is my territory.  Don't you come near."  The loon will stretch out his neck parallel to the water as he makes the call and then move from side to side while he is making it.  That way he broadcasts the call over a wide are.  And believe me, you will hear it.  It is loud.   The call carries not only across the lake but to adjoining lakes in the wilderness.

4.  The hoot- The hoot is a call that most people have never heard.  It is the quietest of the 4 calls and is used between the two adults when they are close to each other or between the adults and the chick.  Because it is so quiet and unlike any of the other loon calls, most people have not heard it or do not recognize it.  It is a 'good' call.

So now you know what the loons are saying when you hear the different calls.  And you can impress your friends and your family with being able to "talk loon"!

The next couple days will be very busy days for our loons.

The weather is supposed to be sunny and nice and in the 80s.

After the long, hard winter that Minnesotans have endured this year. everyone has "cabin fever" and wants to get outside and especially get out on our beloved lakes.

So we will probably see a lot of fishermen and other boat activity all weekend.

Hopefully the loons will be able to take it in stride.  I am sure the male will, but I have questions about the female.

But whatever today brings, enjoy it!

Pour yourself an extra cup of coffee and sit back and enjoy "The Greatest Show On Earth".

A show for which you have ringside seats!

Comments or questions?  LoonCam (at) yahoo (dot) com

Copyright 2014   Larry R Backlund

Friday, May 23, 2014 4:56 am CDT

41 degrees F   Clear    Calm

Sunrise   5:34 am CDT     Sunset   8:45 pm CDT

The sun won't be up for another half hour.

But the birds are awake and singing.  The frogs add their voices to the morning chorus.  The loud honking of the geese carries across the lake.

The last of the night hawks are still flying, but they will soon go to bed for the day.

The lake is like a sheet of glass.  Not a breath of air spoils the perfect reflections in the surface of the lake in the cool morning air.

Wisps of fog drift lazily across the surface of the lake.

The first pinks and slight oranges of the sunrise are making themselves known in the eastern sky to tell us that the sun cannot be far behind.

A distant train whistle adds its plaintive sound to the symphony.

And there sits our loon on the nest.

The loon is relaxed but awake - looking all around.  Ever mindful.  Ever vigilant.  All observant  Ready for anything.

It apparently is the male, who has been on duty on the nest since 9 pm last night.

Much of the night he slept with his beak tucked under his wing.  But even then, he is never totally asleep.  His eyes open every few seconds as he stays aware of what is going on around him.

Within the next hour or two, the female should come in and take over nesting duties and give the male a little bit of a break.  He has carried the lion's share of the nesting duties this year, especially during the long overnight hours.

For those of you who were awake and watching late last night, you saw that we were able to get the infrared light working again.  One more piece of equipment that had burned out after the lightning strike.

So now once again you can have a clearer view of the nest and the loon in the dark of night.  Or any visitors that may decide to pay a visit.  Like muskrats or beavers!  So far I am not aware that either one has tried to come to the nest at night.

Some of you have mentioned the "fish eye" lens this year.

Actually it is not a fish eye lens.  It is a normal flat lens but with a broader field of view than the previous camera.  This allows us to see more of the area surrounding the lake, even over to the far shoreline.  The curvature of the shore may make it seem like a fish eye lens but it is not.

This broader view also allows us to zoom in on the loon or the eggs for a closer view.

I had mentioned how I often wonder what is going on inside the egg at this very minute.  The miracle of Creation that is taking place.  The appearance of a living little chick out of "nothing".  And how I have wondered what it looks like in there  and how cool it would be to have a camera inside the egg to watch that miracle of life taking place.

Well, recently I found an animation of what happens inside a chicken egg that I thought you might be interested in watching.  It is only about 2 minutes long but it gives a wonderful picture of what happens during the 21 days of incubation of a chicken egg.

You can find it on YouTube at: Chicken Embryo Development

Chicken Embryo Development
View on www.youtube.com Preview by Yahoo

Now a loon egg takes 28 days to hatch versus the 21 days of a chicken egg.  But the development of the loon chick would be very similar to a chicken chick.  Just make the appropriate allowance for a few more days of incubation and you can get a very good idea of what is going on inside the egg right now.

We are at 11 days since the first egg was laid and about 9 days since the second egg was laid.

What is amazing is that according to the video, the chick's heart starts to beat at only TWO days!

There truly are some things that are too wonderful to behold.

And they are so far beyond my comprehension and understanding.

So I simply stand back and say "I don't know how you did it, but God you done good!"

Have a wonderful day filled with the majesty and glory and wonder of Life all around you!

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam (at) yahoo (dot) com

Copyright 2014  Larry R Backlund