Sunday, June 1, 2014 6:01 am CDT

Guest User June 1, 2014

66 degrees Rain Wind Gusts to 10 mph

Sunrise 5:28 am CDT Sunset 8:54 pm CDT

Expected Egg Hatch Sometime June 6 - 11

The rain continues.

Some areas of the state have gotten up to 5 inches of rain or more in the last day. Some areas have experienced problems with localized flooding because of the heavy rains.

There is a reason that Minnesota is so green and is the Land of 10,000 Lakes!

It is also the reason that loons love Minnesota.

Minnesota has more loons than any other state in the lower 48. We have an estimated 12,000 loons in Minnesota. Next closest in number is Wisconsin with about 3,500 loons. And then the numbers drop dramatically from there.

Most states do not have any loons that are residents.

Minnesotans forget sometimes how fortunate we are to have loons and we think that everyone has them.

That is not the case at all.

Only the top tier of states in the United States is home to loons during the summer.

We are fortunate indeed to be able to enjoy this unique and wonderful bird. And to have so many of them.

There is nothing that says "northern wilderness" more than to be in a cabin or around a campfire and hear the haunting calls of the loons out on the lake.

It is a sound so unique.

It stirs something deep within the soul.

It echoes back through the eons of time.

Once you hear the call of a loon, it is something that you will never forget.

It is part of the reason that the loon is the Minnesota State Bird.

As long as we are talking about "state history", it might be of interest to you where the name "Minnesota" comes from and what it means.

Most "word doctors" say that the name Minnesota comes from the Dakota Sioux word for "sky tinted waters". It certainly is an appropriate name for this state that has more lakes than any other state. Although this morning the waters are more a leaden gray under cloudy rainy skies than they are sky tinted. But even that I guess fits. The lakes are "sky tinted" even today. And the skies today are "leaden gray".

But you have seen the beautiful blue of the lake on the sunny days.

It is also where one of the other names of the state comes from - "Land of Sky Blue Waters".

This was made famous by the advertising commercials for a beer that was brewed here, Hamms Beer. Their catchy jingle was "From the Land of Sky Blue Waters".

We are rapidly approaching 'the big day'!

We may see the egg hatch as early as this Friday but almost surely by one week from this coming Wednesday [by June 11]. If it goes beyond June 11, then there would be cause for concern.

So now the excitement and suspense mount!

We have just passed Day 20 for the first egg. In fact, we just passed it about 45 minutes ago.

If we go by that video I gave you a few days ago [http://www.youtube (dot) com/watch?v=PedajVADLGw] about the development of a chicken egg and extrapolate to the longer incubation time for a loon egg, the loon chick's body has just rotated inside the egg so that the head is now at the large end of the egg. And the chick is on the verge of being fully covered with feathers or down.

In the case of our loon chick, it is that beautiful black down that we know so well.

For now, we can only imagine what is going on inside those eggs. The two eggs that the loons have been so faithfully protecting and keeping warm even in the midst of storms.

Soon we will know.

Soon we will see!

There is a good chance that by a week from today we may already see our first loon chick!

What could be better than that?

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

Saturday, May 31, 2014 1:35 pm CDT

Guest User May 31, 2014

74 degrees F Heavy Rain Wind Gusts to 10 mph

Sunrise 5:28 am CDT Sunset 8:53 pm CDT

WOW!

That was some downpour!

There are lakes where there should not be lakes!

There may be a little bit of a break. Then there is another cell coming right behind this one so we are in for more rain this afternoon.

When that next cell passes in a little while, then we should have a break for a few hours.

The loons don't mind a little bit of water on their head. As long as it is not hail or high winds. Neither hail nor high winds are predicted with this storm.

I am hearing some thunder but nothing massive or close to us.

The big advantage is that the rain dropped the temperature about 15 degrees in a matter of minutes.

So the rain and the cooler temps should give the loons a well-deserved break from the heat and the black flies.

Stay tuned!

Who knows what will happen next on the loon cam!

Friday, May 29, 2014 8:22 pm CDT

Guest User May 30, 2014

82 degrees F Clear Wind SE 3 mph

Sunrise 5:29 am CDT Sunrise 8:52 pm CDT

Expected Egg Hatch Sometime Friday, June 6 to June 11

We are exactly one half hour from sunset.

Then starts twilight. The magical time of night.

Tonight promises to be another warm and quiet night.

But then by tomorrow afternoon, rain storms are supposed to move in and last through Monday. That should cool the temperatures off a little bit and give the loons some relief on the nest. I think that the temperature on the nest again today had to be well above 90 degrees.

So cooler temperatures will be welcome for the loons.

Plus we can use some rain. And the plants on the nest I am sure can also use some rain.

Nothing much has changed much with the nest.

The male continues to do the majority of time on the nest. The female continues to be very shy but she has been faithful at remaining on the nest.

For those of you who are new, many of the good people have been kind enough to answer many of your questions. One of the recurring questions is how do you tell the difference between a male and female loon.

It is almost impossible to tell the difference between the male and the female just by looking at them. Most "experts" cannot do it with any reliability without examining the loon. I cannot do it most of the time.

In general, the male is slightly larger than the female. But even that is hard to use as a reliable gauge unless you see them next to each other.

The only reliable way of telling the male from the female here on the LoonCam is that the male is banded and the female is not banded.

What do I mean when I say "banded"?

Bands are identification markers which are placed around the leg of the loon.

Our male has two bands on his right leg.

In the US Geological service records, they are "blue stripe over silver". The blue stripe band is for visual identification. The silver band is a US Fish and Wildlife Service band that has a number on it that is unique to this particular loon. There is no other loon in the world with that number.

On the loon's left leg is a data recorder.

It has been recording exactly where the loon has traveled.

We banded this male and his female partner, another pair of loons and 2 out of 3 chicks in the summer of 2012. We were not able to band the chick off the LoonCam nest because he was a little too small at the time we did the banding.

We apparently lost that chick a few weeks later. I cannot say for sure how but I suspect that it may have been taken by an eagle.

Last year this male returned with a different female. An unbanded female. I suspect that the female with him this year is the same one that was with him last year when they did not nest. I cannot say for sure but it is an "educated" guess.

So as you watch the loons get on and off the nest, watch for the bands on the legs of the male and watch and you will see that there are no bands on the legs of the female.

That is the ONLY way that any of us can tell for sure which loon is which.

So enjoy doing your own detective work over the next few days while we wait for the BIG EVENT!

The hatching of the eggs.

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

Thursday, May 29, 2014 9:12 pm CDT

Guest User May 29, 2014

71 degrees F Clear Calm

Sunrise 5:30 am CDT Sunset 8:51 pm CDT

Expected Egg Hatch Sometime June 6 - 11

It is twilight.

This is the magical time of evening in Minnesota in the summer.

The sun has already set but it will not be truly dark for sometime.

These twilight hours are special. Quiet. Enfolding. Magical.

So many places in the country, the sun sets and then it is dark. Not here.

The glow of the sun and twilight lingers in the western and northern sky. In fact, at the longest days of summer, there is a glow that stays in the northern sky most of the night. And when you get even further north from here, it is even more pronounced. Until you reach the Arctic Circle where there are the days of 24 hour sun.

But now, the evening is quiet.

The lake is still.

The frogs are just beginning to sing their evening song.

And the male loon looks like he is settled in once again for the 'night shift'.

A little earlier this evening as I was talking to some of you great people on chat, I wondered whether it was the male or the female loon on the nest since the loon would go into deep hangover. Normally the male does not do that. When I looked, I did not see anything that should be upsetting it. There were two pontoons of people sitting enjoying the evening but they were far enough away that I didn't think they should have bothered the male.

I knew the female would possibly go into hangover, but not the male.

Later when I saw it again, I went down to the lake to see what was bothering him.

There was a canoe that came in to the neighbor's place a couple doors down. A great young man and he came no where near the nest. But as long as he was down by the shore, the male stayed in hangover.

When he went up to the cabin, the male once again resumed his heads up posture. Even though I was standing right there. The neighbor had been over twice as far from the nest as I was. But the loon saw him and was concerned.

Now these neighbors are not out very often. So the loon doesn't really know them.

Yes, I know that sounds silly.

But loons do get to know and recognize people!

And they seem to know me.

When I first saw it years ago, I thought I was loosing my mind. I talked with a biologist at the University of Minnesota who specializes in waterfowl. He said he also believed that they do get to recognize people. He said that some of his research birds (not loons) really do seem to know him but are frightened of strangers.

So when the young man left the lakeshore, the loon resumed his relaxed posture even though I was standing right there much closer to him.

A couple days ago I gave you the video about the development of a chick in a chicken egg as a way of visualizing what might be going on inside our loon eggs.

The video talked about "claws developing" in the chicken chicks and I repeated that description.

I have been asked if loons have 'claws' and if I have ever seen them use their claws.

I did not mean to mislead you. The chickens do develop claws.

The loons develop what might more appropriately be called "toenails".

And yes I have seen them use them.

And yes they are sharp.

And yes they have used them on me!

It happened two years ago when we were banding the loons in the middle of the night. We had just finished putting the bands and the data recorder on the male that you are watching now.

People wanted to get some pictures of me holding the loon. He was relaxed. As I was holding it, a number of camera flashes were going off.

I guess it was all the flashes going off in the middle of a dark night that frightened the loon. He began to fight to get away. I had all I could do to hang onto him. They are unbelievably strong. And I especially did not want to lose control of that sharp beak!

Once I had gotten him calmed back down, we put him back into the transportation crate while we worked on the other loons.

It was then that one of the people from the Minnesota DNR said, "Larry! You are bleeding!"

I looked down and saw a bright red stream of blood running down my arm!

Obviously, as I had been struggling to control the loon, one of those "toenails" had put a pretty good gouge in my arm.

So someone had a first aid kit, they bandaged me up and we were ready to continue for the rest of the night.

So yes, loons have 'toenails' but they do not have 'claws' as we think of claws when we think of an eagle's claws.

It will be VERY hard to see but you might get a glimpse of those toenails as they come up on the nest.

Once again today, it has been a very hot sunny day with temperatures up near 90 degrees. I am sure the temperatures were over 90 on the nest!

You have seen the loons panting like a dog as they sat in the hot sun.

And once in a while going for a swim to cool off.

The female once again today did a great job of staying on the nest for several hours at a time! It has been good to see her increase the amount of time she spends on the nest.

She is still very shy and ready to go into 'hangover' is still there but she is getting better at staying on the nest.

You have a whole new understanding of what repeated disturbances can mean to loons. When we are out on the water, we tend to think that we did not disturb the loons by coming too close. Because they went back to the nest right away.

And your ONE time will not make a difference.

But when it happens from one person. And then another. And then another. And then another. And another. And another. Soon it does have an impact on the loons. If the disturbances become too many, it may actually cause the loons to abandon a nest.

So remember that when you are out on the water. And tell your family and friends about it as well.

A good rule of thumb is that if you stay at least 300 feet away from a nest, you will have little if any effect on the loons (although that is not the case with this years female!). Bring a pair of binoculars and enjoy them from a distance.

So enjoy these special days with "our" loons!

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

Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:02 pm CDT

Guest User May 28, 2014

63 degrees F Clear Calm

Sunrise 5:31 am CDT Sunset 8:50 pm CDT

Expected Egg Hatch Sometime June 6 - 11

Today has been a very warm and sunny day.

After our long winter that stretched into spring, in just the last few days summer has arrived with a vengeance.

One of the things that has also arrived with a vengeance are mosquitoes! The "other" Minnesota state bird!

There had been no mosquitoes at all. Then on Sunday night they were there in swarms, driving you indoors! The heat of the last few days has obviously hatched them by the millions.

I don't know of any Minnesotan who likes mosquitoes!

I have mentioned to you my love for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area up along the Canadian Border.

I have often said, "God, if you are a JUST God, you will have a corner of heaven, if for nobody else but me, that looks exactly like the Boundary Waters .... WITHOUT mosquitoes!!"

Of course, it HAS to also have loons!

Some of you have also commented on the small insects that have swarmed right in front of the camera lens.

They definitely are not mayflies.

The mayfly hatch has not really started yet. I have seen just a few around so that would make me believe that the main mayfly hatch will happen sometime in the next few days.

Also, the insects in front of the camera are not the blackflies that can torment loons, some of which you have already seen landing on the heads of the loons (more on them in a minute).

My best guess is another small insect and there have been swarms of them on land. So it does not surprise me to see them on the nest, although I do not remember seeing that in previous years.

I don't even know what kind of insect they are.

The look somewhat like a mosquito only much smaller. And they do not bite or sting. They simply swarm around your head by the thousands and are just a nuisance more than anything else.

I don't know for sure if that is what the ones you are seeing are. But that would be my best guess. I have seen them in front of the camera as well. So you are not imagining them!

Now a little bit more about the blackflies that bother the loons.

These little flies are one more thing that makes loons so amazing.

The blackflies feed EXCLUSIVELY on loon blood!

Talk about being specialized in life to the point where they feed exclusively on loon blood. One wonders how they can even survive when that is their only or primary food source.

These blackflies, "Simulium euryadminiculum" [although I have also seen them referred to as simulium annulus], can sometimes get so bad that a loon will abandon its nest.

These black flies seem to be drawn primarily to chemical scents emitted by the loons and possibly to a lesser extent by color or shape.

Much more needs to be learned about the effects of the flies on loons but it seems that they can transmit blood parasites that can weaken the loon's immune system.

So as you watch on a warm day without much wind, watch these small blackflies gather on the loons head. And watch as the loon will shake his head or rub his head on his back to try to get rid of them.

Once again, little things that you would NEVER be able to see without your closeup view from the LoonCam. Things that add so much to our understanding of what challenges the loons face from day to day.

Also remember that the eggs may hatch in just over a week!

Can it be that it is that time already?

And then hopefully we will see two impossibly cute little loon chicks. But our view of them will be fleeting. For they will leave the nest within about 24 hours. Usually never to return again.

And then another season of the LoonCam will come to a close all too soon.

Don't miss a minute. They are so precious and so fleeting.

Savor every one.

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

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