Tuesday. June 3. 2014 6:12 am CDT

Guest User June 3, 2014

54 degrees F Clear Wind 2mph NW

Sunrise 5:27 am CDT Sunset 8:56 pm CDT

Expected Egg Hatch Sometime June 6 - 11

It is a beautiful sunny morning as the sun breaks over the trees on the shore of the lake.

A light breeze is blowing, just enough to help keep the blackflies away from the loon but not enough to rock the nest.

A pair of geese swim by with their two new goslings in tow.

The loons just made their morning nest exchange a little while ago and now the female has taken over from the male. The female seems to be settling into the routine better and better each day.

Yesterday morning she was on the nest for over seven and one half hours!

She is still super sensitive to any disturbance. But even with that she is getting better and more experienced and does not leave the nest readily, although she goes into hangover from almost any disturbance.

The male is still doing the majority of the incubation duty, especially since he is doing the long overnight shift.

Last night he was on the nest for 13 1/2 hours and the night before for over 15 1/2 hours.

Some of you have asked what the other loon does and where it goes when it is off the nest.

The time off the nest gives it a chance to catch fish and eat, to swim, to preen and take care of its feathers to keep them waterproof and in general to just take a break.

They are not necessarily close to the nest. Many times when I have looked out on the lake, I cannot even find them or see them. It is not unheard of for a loon to even fly to an adjacent lake. Or just to fly, seemingly for exercise or 'the fun of it' and to keep their flight muscles in shape.

However, most of the time they are simply fishing or swimming somewhere else on the lake. But they keep to their own part of the lake or their own territory if there is more than one pair of loons on a lake.

Crossing that invisible line that defines a loons territory can trigger an all out confrontation between competing loons.

A loon's diet consists primarily of small fish.

But they will eat many different things including crabs and leeches and insects and other things.

One of the requirements for a good loon territory is that it have an abundance of small fish.

A loon can eat up to 2 pounds of fish a day!

Most of the fish are small. An ounce or two or less. So a loon has to be a good fisherman when they must catch that many fish. But they can also catch fish that weigh a couple pounds! It would seem like it would be impossible for them to swallow a fish that large.

But they do.

Today is day 22 since the first egg was laid.

We are getting close!

According to the time line from the chick embryo growth video that I gave you a couple times, our loon chicks have probably now developed down that covers the body and their head is tucked between their legs as they now almost completely fill the egg.

My best guess is that the eggs may hatch this weekend. It could be as early as this Friday or as late as a week from tomorrow. But probably the best chance of seeing them hatch is this weekend.

I will say a little more in the next couple days about the signs to watch for that indicate hatching is taking place.

But once again today, enjoy this wonderful and totally unique opportunity to watch loons in the wild as they incubate their eggs in preparation for new life!

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

Monday, June 2, 2014 5:12 am CDT

Guest User June 2, 2014

63 degrees Cloudy and Rain Wind Calm

Sunrise 5:28 am CDT Sunset 8:55 pm CDT

Expected Egg Hatching Sometime Friday June 6 to Wednesday June 11

The male loon once again has taken the long overnight shift on the nest.

In fact, according to faithful observers here he may have been on the nest since about 2:30 pm yesterday afternoon. If that is true and there wasn't a nest change that observers missed, that would make it almost 15 hours on the nest for him already!

The amount of time spent on the nest by each of the loons has certainly been an interesting observation this year. And for the first time ever, we have been able to see definitively who is who because of the bands on the legs of the male.

Is this the norm for division of nesting duties?

It goes against all conventional wisdom.

But it certainly is interesting to watch and it sure gives a whole new insight into loon behavior. Insight that would not be possible without the LoonCam.

This is the only place in the world that you can watch something like this. This close of a view of a Common Loon on its nest. Something that none of us would ever be able to do in nature.

We have been doing this for over 10 years. The LoonCam is one of the first live webcams of any kind in the world with this kind of a closeup view of nature. Now webcams have become more and more common.

Don't take this the wrong way, but eagle cams have almost become a dime a dozen. I don't mean to minimize them in any way. They are wonderful and we all enjoy them. There are a lot of them. But there is only one place that we can go to see loons.

There is only one LoonCam!

As you watch our loons today, watch for something as the loons make their nest change.

As graceful and beautiful as loons are on and in the water and as fast as they can fly in the air, loons are NOT graceful as they try to get around on land.

In fact, they are downright clumsy and comical.

They are almost helpless on land.

When the loons come up out of the water and get onto the nest, you will see that they move with difficulty.

In fact, there are some that speculate that the loon may have actually gotten its name from a Swedish word meaning 'clumsy'. The Swedish word is "lom".

But wherever the name came from, clumsy sure fits their movement on land.

Why is that so?

Let's do a little exercise to illustrate why it is so hard for loons to get around on land.

Hold your arm out in front of you [those of you who have been here for a few years know what we are going to do. But do it with us.]

Spread your fingers out and wiggle them.

Now pretend that your arm and hand and fingers are the leg of a chicken.

Your upper arm would be the chicken's drumstick. Your lower arm would be the lower part of the chicken's leg and your hand and fingers would be the chicken's foot.

Now with both your arms, pretend that you are a chicken walking. See how it feels as you move your arms like you are walking with them.

That is how a chicken walks.

But let's look at how a loon walks.

Once again, hold your arm out in front of you. But this time, hold the upper part of your arm (the 'drumstick') tight against your body. Don't let the upper part of your arm move away from your body.

Now try to 'walk' like you did before, moving only the lower part of your arm and your hand and fingers.

A big difference in being able to 'walk', isn't there?!

That is the difference between a chicken walking and a loon walking.

Because where the chicken's whole leg is free to move, only the lower part of a loon's leg can move freely.

The "drumstick" on a loon is encased in the loon's body skin! It cannot move freely.

There is a big difference in the feel of walking like a chicken and walking like a loon, isn't there?

Now you know why a loon has such difficulty moving around on land.

As you look at the loon when they get on the nest, you can see that the leg comes out of the body skin way at the back of the loon's body. The drumstick is tightly encased in skin all the way down to the knee joint.

And this makes it very difficult for a loon to get around on land.

Now you can show your friends and family that you know how to "walk like a loon"!

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

Because of the volume of mail, I won't be able to reply to each one personally. But I do eventually read each and every one. And I will try to answer some of the questions here on the blog.

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

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