Wednesday, June 11, 2014 5:29 am CDT

53 degrees F     Clear     Calm

Sunrise   5:24 am CDT     Sunset   9:01 pm CDT

HATCHED!

The sun has just risen but has not cleared the tree tops on the horizon yet.

But our loon family is already busy.

The "minnow brigade" is well underway for breakfast.

Both mom and dad loon bring minnow after minnow to feed the hungry chicks.

The chicks accept each one offered and wait for the next offering.

Dive after dive.  Minnow after minnow.  Gobble after gobble.

It is a good thing there are a lot of fish in this lake.  Because it takes a lot of fish and a lot of minnows to keep our loons happy and well-fed.

In fact, that is one  of the requirements for a good lake for loons.  It must have an abundance of fish, especially a variety of fish and minnows on the smaller side to feed our young loons.

It is amazing to watch the adults come back with minnow after minnow.  The tiniest minnows.  Perfect chick size minnows.

The adult does not catch just anything and everything.  They select only those minnows that are the right size for our chicks.  And right now the right size is only the tiniest of minnows.

One can only imagine the frantic chases that go on underwater as the big loon chases the little minnows that can dart around so rapidly.  But the loon is not chasing all the minnows, he is having to sort out minnows and chase only the ones of the size that he knows our chicks can swallow.

Yet one more amazing thing about our loons that we seldom stop to think about.

I remember once watching an adult bring a small sunfish to their little chick.

As they sat looking at each other, it was as if the chick was saying, "What am I supposed to do with that?!"  Finally the adult swallowed the sunfish and went off to find a minnow that was the right size.

But right now the endless supply of minnows comes on the "minnow conveyor" for the chicks.

It is now only 48 hours since the second chick jumped into the big and scary lake from off the nest.  When the male left the nest, the chick followed without a moments hesitation.

It is amazing to already see how much they have grown in such a short time.  The minnows are just what a growing chick needs.

Yesterday morning I missed when both the male and the female got up on the nest for a short time.  For the first time in a long time, I too 'slept in'!  And apparently they got up on the nest, the female before I was here and the male after I finished my blog.

That is where all of you are so valuable in having "eyes on" the loons to see what is happening.  None of us can be here every minute 24/7.  But by having so many pairs of eyes watching and then documenting what you see, it is so helpful in advancing our understanding of the loons.

It does not surprise me that they got up on the nest ever so briefly.

I watched the videos which are also so very helpful.  Thank you 33jorgey and pam and all the rest of you [I better not start naming people because I will leave someone out and I apologize for that] for your yeoman's efforts in capturing and documenting everything with photos and videos.  What a fabulous record you leave for all of us!

The female was up on the nest for 1 minute 58 seconds according to one of the videos.  And the male was on the nest for 3 minutes 57 seconds.

Both of them made the "mewing" call as they sat and looked around.

It would be SO interesting to know what is actually going through their minds at a time like that.

The behavior, which is not uncommon, seems like it may be almost some kind of a breaking the bond with the nest.  After all, they have spent every waking moment with that nest for the last month.

It is almost as if they are looking around and saying, "Yup.  This is where it all happened.  But there is nothing left for us here.  We have taken everything we need and now we can move on to where we really belong - the lake."

Remember the previous morning when the male got off the nest and the second chick followed him into the lake for the first time without a moment's hesitation? The female then immediately got up on the nest and looked around for about a minute and then left.

We have to remember that was only 24 hours before they both got up on the nest to check it out yesterday morning that the second chick had left the nest for the first time.

The loons have gradually begun to take the chicks further and further from the nest already.

And that behavior will continue over the next few days and weeks.  Venturing further and further away but still staying in this general area of the lake.  And being careful not to wander into another loon's territory.

The chicks do a lot of riding on the back of one parent or another at this stage.

Which I love to see for several reasons.

First because it is just so cute.  It is such an iconic picture of a loon with a baby or two sitting on their back.

Second, and more important, it protects the baby loon from predators and from the cold water.

The back riding will continue for the next couple weeks.  And then one day the chicks will be too big to ride on mom or dad's back.  They will try.  But at some point the loon says, "OK.  That is enough of that.  You are getting to big to do that anymore."

Right now the little chicks are at their most vulnerable.

They are like little black downy corks that float on the surface.

They can't quite figure out how mom and dad can dive like that.  They try to dive but they simply pop right back up to the surface.

But as they sit on the surface of the water, they are perfect targets for toothy pike and muskies, bass with big mouths or snapping turtles.  Or targets from the air for an eagle to swoop down and grab not a meal but a mere morsel.

So it is not an easy life or a safe life for our little loons.

They are also so vulnerable to speed boats and jetskis.

To as speeding boater, they are a mere speck on the water that often times is not even seen and can be run over without the boater knowing they have even done anything.  The adults can dive to get out of the way of a boat.  But the chicks that are like corks cannot dive to safety.

Or even by separating the chicks from the adults or forcing them off the adult's back, it makes the chicks more vulnerable to be taken by predators.

So as you or your friends and family are out on the water this summer, encourage them to be ever mindful and on the lookout for loons and especially little chicks.

Future generations of loon lovers will thank you!

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam at yahoo dot com

Copyright 2014     Larry R Backlund

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 6:55 am CDT

53 degrees F     Clear     Calm

Sunrise   5:25 am CDT     Sunset   9:00 pm CDT

HATCHED!

On a beautiful, calm sunny summer morning, our loon family has just completed making an appearance in front of the camera as they swam by the nest.

But the nest holds no attraction for them anymore.  They hardly gave it more than a glance as they swam by.

What had been "home" for more than a month is no longer home.

Home is in the water.  The wider expanse of the lake.

Since the loons left early yesterday morning, they have remained in the general area of the nest but not always real close by.  The nest had been a necessity before.  Now it is just one more place in their territory.

While I could not definitively see both chicks on the back(s) of the loons as they swam by, I think both of them are still there and ok.  

They were both ok and very active at sunset last night.

As we approach the longest day of the year in just over a week, today is the first time that sunset has reached 9:00 pm.  The day is now over 15 1/2 hours long and with twilight there is almost 17 hours of visible daylight.

These are the magical long days of summer in the far north.

Before every one scatters their different directions for the year, let me once again say thank you to all of you for being a part of this wonderful experience of watching "our" loons.  For they have truly become "our" loons to all of us, no matter where in the world we are.  Probably the most famous loons in the world.

They have allowed us to take an intimate peek into their world.  And by doing so have helped to understand the hundreds of thousands of other loons, or in the case of northern Europe and Scandinavia, the Great Northern Divers as they are known there.

Hopefully they have contributed to our better and larger understanding of all loons.  To see things that have never been seen before.  To hear things that have never been heard before.  To watch behaviors that we could never see in person no matter how good we were as naturalists.

This is one of the true values and contributions of the LoonCam.

I thank you for being a part of it.

Yesterday, the loons stayed in the general area of the nest.  They swam and floated back and forth but always in this region of the lake.  Never wandering too far away.

They seem to feel that the area is generally a "safe" area for them.

This is "normal" behavior from what I have seen over years of watching.  But then what IS "normal".  We seem to help to make a small change in the definition of normal each year.

Some researchers I have read through the years have talked about the loons taking the chicks to a special secluded area after the chicks have hatched.  An area in the weeds or a small cove or near shore.  I have never found that to be the case.  

Without exception I have found the loons from the LoonCam each year stay in the general area of the nest, even though it is essentially open water on the main body of the lake.

As the days go by, they gradually expand the area that swim until they use a good share of the lake.  That is, unless there are other loons on the lake.  Then the very well defined territorial boundaries still apply until much later in the summer when the chicks are almost fully grown.

The chicks already look like they have grown in just the last 24 hours since they left the nest!

The parents have been busily feeding them small minnows.  At feeding times, it is what I call a non-stop assembly line minnow buffet for the chicks.

The minnows that the parents bring right now are tiny little minnows.  They are very selective of what they catch and bring to the chicks.  And the chicks eagerly await each and every one and quickly gobble it down when it is brought to them.

Much of the day the chick have been riding safely on the backs of the parents.  That iconic picture that is so typical of baby loons.

By being able to ride on the backs of the parents while they are so young and so small, the chicks are kept warm and are kept safe from predators both above and below them.  Large fish and turtles that are lurking in the water underneath them.  Eagles and crows and seagulls and other predators in the air above them.

What a marvelous way of protecting the chicks without the need for a nest.

To allow the chicks to learn to be truly residents of the water for the rest of their lives.

For those of you who may be keeping track, the first chick was hatched at just about 26 1/2 days (just an hour shy).  That is, assuming the first chick that hatched came from the first egg.  Which is a pretty good assumption.

I am a little less sure of the time of the second egg since I was not able to see the exact time of laying of the egg because of lightning taking out the camera and all of our equipment.

Based on my best guess of when the egg was laid, it was probably 25 1/2 days but it may have been as short as 24 1/2 days.  It is impossible to know for sure.  If it was 25 1/2 days, that would be in line with what I have seen several times before.   If it was 24 1/2 days, that would be the shortest time ever observed.  But it was somewhere in that range although I cannot definitively say what it was.

This again is one of the wonderful things about the LoonCam.  That we are able to definitively know when the eggs were laid (down to the minute) and to have a very good idea of when hatching took place.

In the past, researchers had to make a best guess based on their observations from afar.  Most of that time it was measured in hours or days rather than minutes.

I will leave the LoonCam up and running for at least another few days for you to hopefully catch a glimpse of our wonderful loon family.  But after a few days, as they expand their territory and move further and further from the nest, we will regretfully bring another season of the LoonCam to a close and look forward to next year with a whole boatload of fond memories from this year.

I will not shut it off without any warning.  We will just watch and see what the loons do and then make a decision of when to turn the LoonCam off for the year.

But I will try to give you at least a little bit of notice when it is going to be shut down.

Let me also say a word about the Chat Room that you have had in the past and which I know so many of you (including me) miss so very much.

I found out a little more information about that a few weeks ago.

When Minnesota Bound went to a whole new platform for their website, they thought (or maybe even had been told) that the new platform supported a chat room like the one that had been so special to everyone.

But when they had the new platform in place and were building the new site, only then did it become apparent that it would not support a chat room like the previous one.

The loss of the chat room was a surprise to you.  It was a surprise to me.  And it was a surprise to them.

Just know that they have continued to ask for the ability to have a chat room like we had before.  Let us hope and pray that it can be done.

I just wanted to let you know what I had found out about it.

So enjoy the sights and sounds of the lake.  And especially enjoy the fleeting and all too rare glimpses of the loons themselves.

And rejoice that they are healthy and doing well.  God, You done good!

Both mom and dad seem to have risen to the challenge of taking care of the chicks.

Let me once again mention for those of you in central Minnesota, I will be speaking at the Isanti County Historical Society in Cambridge, MN on Wednesday, August 13 at 1pm.  I would love to see you there and be able to meet you and thank you personally for your love of loons and your support of watching the LoonCam.

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam at yahoo dot com

Copyright 2014   Larry R Backlund

Monday, June 9, 2014 5:35 am CDT

55 degrees     Partly Cloudy     Calm

Sunrise   5:25 am CDT     Sunset   8:59 pm CDT

It is a cloudy morning and even though the sun has just risen, there are no rays.

The male loon still sits on the nest with chick #2 safely protected and warm under him.

The female is feeding chick#1 right alongside the nest as she hoots rapidly, a sound I have not often heard before this year and before this female.

Then at 5:32 am, the male decides it is time for him to leave the nest and he dives in.

Without a moments hesitation, chick #2 follows and makes the big leap into the big unknown!

The four of them swim together.

As if on cue, drops of rain begin to hit the nest and the camera housing, creating the familiar "ping".

It is as if tears are falling from the heavens.

Tears of joy!  Joy for our loons.

And tears of sadness!  Sadness for us that so quickly we lose them.  Being able to watch them so very closely.

The nest now looks so forlorn and lonely!

Once a place a new life, it is now just broken shells and cattails.  So sad and dead.

BUT a yellow iris is starting to bloom!

Just in time to announce the birth of our two loon chicks as they head out into the great unknown of a new life!

With a combination of loud wails and tremolos, our loons seem to want to announce to the world that they have two brand new baby chicks and they are heading out into the great unknown to start a new life together!

[Excuse me for the delay.  I had to take a break from writing to watch the scenes unfolding before us!  And maybe a few tears.  I guess some dust got in my eyes.]

Our little family of 4 loons now starts its new life together!

As we have talked about so many times, our view of them is so fleeting.

The chicks don't wait around for no one!

They hatch and then usually within 24 hours they are in the lake.  From that point on, they are waterbirds.  That is their element.  Not land where it is so difficult to get around.

But even that is an amazing thing to watch.

The little balls of fuzz don't have much trouble getting around on land.  They don't walk necessarily.  They almost hop or bound.

But it will not be long before land is a 'foreign place' to them as well.

For a little bit, all 4 swam fairly close to the nest.

The female even got back up on the nest to inspect it while the 2 chicks anxiously circled the nest waiting for mom.

She sat.  She adjusted.  She got up and "rolled" the empty shells.  And sat down again on them.  A process that she repeated several times.

And then as if she was satisfied that she had taken care of everything, she went out the front door and locked it behind her.

There were mouths to feed.  And kids to take care of.

It has been amazing to watch the change in the female especially over the last 24 hours.

Once she had been 'afraid' of every shadow, even her own.

She was ready to leave the nest and swim away for any reason.  Or no reason.

But once that chick first jumped up to ride on her back, it was as if some kind of a switch had flipped.

She stayed near the nest, never going far.  She fed chick #1.  She let him ride on her back most of the time.  Her behavior changed almost immediately.  It was as if  "Oh, I get it now!  This is what this is all about!"

And the male continued to do yeoman's duty on the nest, spending long long hours there incubating the egg.

Until we finally saw the head of the second chick peek out.

There had been glimpses of a 'beak' or a 'head' or 'something black' as early as 4 pm or 4:20 pm.

But at 4:49 pm a chick's head clearly came out from the backside of the male's left wing and stayed there.  So in my own notes I put 4:49 pm as the official time for the new chick.  But we know that he had been working his way out the egg for hours before that.

We know at 1:30 pm there had only been a dime sized (or less) pip in the egg.  So sometime between then and 4:49 pm, the chick had fully made its way out of the egg and had dried off.

And he laid with just his head poking out of dad's wing for many minutes, just resting.

But we had a second chick!

And all of us could breath again.

About 9 pm, the male suddenly left the nest and there was chick #2 all alone on the nest.  Both the male and the female started a long chorus of wails and tremolos and even yodels from the male.  I saw no threat anywhere near.  It was as if they wanted to announce the birth of their second chick.

I was afraid the female would dive and leave the first chick on her back behind.  She did not.

The male returned to the nest after a few minutes and hooted to the second chick on the nest as he swam in front of the nest.  I was afraid that he was going to coax the chick into the water.  And I wanted to the chick to stay on the safety of the nest for the night.  And of course I knew better than the loon!

"Fortunately" the chick stayed on the nest and the male got back up on the nest and safely tucked him under his wing.  And there they stayed for the night.  While the female stayed nearby with chick #1 safely under her wing.

When both chicks were in the water together, it was time to see if there would be the "pecking order" fight.

There was one, but it was not bad at all.  It was short and not very violent.  I was thankful for that.  With that out of the way, now the chicks could move on as best friends.

So now a whole new chapter begins.

One that we unfortunately are not able to be privy to like we have when the loons were on cam where we could watch them closeup.

It is that bittersweet time of year.

Sheer joy for our loons and their two new chicks.

Sadness for us that this chapter is over for another season..

I will leave the camera up for a while so that you might try to catch a glimpse of "our" loons.  But I must be honest and warn you, do not expect to see them like you have seen them for the last month.  At most, you may catch a far away glimpse once in a while.

Now watch them prove me wrong like our nest-loving chick did in 2013 as he came back to the nest over and over and over.  But that behavior may have been his undoing.

The chicks belong in the water.  

And that seems to be exactly where these two chicks want to be.  It took chick #1 only a few hours to get in the water.  Chick #2 waited 'a full 13 hours' before making his first jump.

I will try to keep you up-to-date periodically here on the blog to let you know how they are doing.

Let me say once again THANK YOU!

Thank you for being an amazing group of people who have truly bonded yourselves into the "LoonCam Family"!

Your kindness and your well wishes are humbling.

For those of you who are in the Twin Cities area, I will be speaking at the Isanti County Historical Society in Cambridge, MN on Wednesday, August 13th at 1pm.  If you can come, I would like to meet some of you faithful LoonCam watchers in person and put a face to a name.  I am sure if you just Googled Isanti County Historical  Society, the information will be posted there.

Once again, THANK YOU!

I will keep posting here periodically.  But the posts will gradually get further and further apart, just like our sighting of the loons here on the LoonCam.  And then after some appropriate period of time, the LoonCam will be shut down.  

Until NEXT year!

Questions or Comments?  LoonCam (at) yahoo (dot) com  Or just leave your email address for possible updates of what is happening.  Or especially announcements for when the LoonCam goes live next year!

Copyright   2014      Larry R Backlund

We have a SECOND CHICK!!

Head fully out from under wing at 4:49 pm CDT although several saw glimpses of beak and head as early as 4:20 or earlier.

Sunday, June 8, 2014 4:20 am CDT

44 degrees F     Foggy     Calm

Sunrise   5:25 am CDT     Sunset   8:59 pm CDT

One Egg Hatched, One To Go!

It is a very foggy morning on the lake.

One can't see more than a few feet in front of them.

From somewhere out in the fog comes the plaintive call of another loon.  A wail.  Then again. And again.

Is it our mate?

Or is it another loon?

We can't tell.  We can't see that far because of the fog.

But there is a lovely warming brooding feel about it.  The still morning air.  The first glimpses of light on the eastern horizon.  The dense fog.  The call of a loon drifting across the lake.

It can easily transport one back through the ages of time immemorial.

And raise goosebumps on your arms.

But the main event is on the nest in front of us.

One miracle has already taken place.

Is another one on the way?

The first egg has hatched.  Is the second hatch already underway?

It is hard to tell.

The male loon on the nest is up and down.  Very fidgety.

Is it the active little chick that hatched only 12 hours ago that is making him move around so much?  Or is there another chick hatching out of the second egg right now?

It is hard to tell since he is doing such a good job of protecting the first chick and hiding everything from our view.

The first birds of the morning start their wake up songs.  A far away train whistle adds its plaintive sound to the magic of the morning.

And there under the loon on the nest is the little black chick that we have already fallen in love with.  Impossibly cute.  Impossibly active.  He has already stolen our hearts.

And dare we hope it?

Could there be a second chick soon?

Even though the two eggs were laid 2 or 3 days apart, it is possible that because of a miracle called "catch up", that they might hatch much closer together than that.  Even hours apart.

Our first chick made his appearance at 4:07 pm CDT yesterday afternoon.  That is the first time we actually saw him.  So that is the official time we will use as the time of hatching.

However, he was probably actually out of the egg a couple hours before that because when we first saw him, he was already dry and his down was fluffy and black when dad went off the nest and bowled him over and left him all alone.  But it gave us a great view of him sitting with the other egg and the broken egg shell that he had just come out of.

In addition to that, the female had before that brought small minnows twice and got up on the nest with them as she rapidly hooted.  She seemed to feed them to something.  But we could not see what.  It was on the far side of the male on the nest and his body shielded everything from view.

But what else could it be?

There had to be a chick under the right wing on the far side of the male.  But we would just have to wait longer before we actually saw the first chick.

I have never seen a loon come up on the nest with a minnow that early in the process.  It was as if she could not wait to feed her new baby.  Nor have I heard that many rapid hoots as she made each time she brought a minnow.

Now we wait.

We wait for daylight.

We wait to see if there is already another chick there?  Or one on the way.

But there is also another thing that you need to prepare yourself for when the second chick arrives.

Most times there will be a knock down drag out fight between the two chicks!

It is SO hard to watch.

You swear they are going to kill each other as they peck and attack.

It apparently is the proverbial "pecking order" being established.  And usually it is triggered by the first chick, who is older and stronger.

It can go on for some minutes.  But those minutes seem like hours while it is happening.

And then as suddenly as it started, it is over.

And the two chicks are the best of friends and companions from that time on.

For those of you who did not see it or have not read last night's blog entry, our first chick has already been in the water and has already done a lot of swimming!

And in heart stopping moments, one waited for a large fish to take him as dad went back on the nest to tend the second egg and mom just swam away out into the lake.  Leaving our brand new chick all alone on such a big and dangerous 'ocean' of water.

He cried over and over.

The male on the nest called and even 'screamed'.  The chick tried to get back up on the nest but he could not.  It was too big for him.

All the while he was so very vulnerable to disappearing in the mouth of something from below.  So vulnerable to being someone else's meal.

But he finally found the chick ramp and made his way back up to safety on the nest and under dad's wing!

To me, it seemed too early to jump in, only hours after he hatched.

But it was both mom and dad that called him into the lake.  And then left him.

It was hard to watch to say the least.

But he survived.  He was safe.  And right now he is under dad's wing on this foggy morning.

Some of you also wondered about all the noise last night and some even saw reflections of some of the light of fireworks.

Those were not fireworks by people on the lake.

They were fireworks from a community celebration in a small village a few miles away.  There are so many towns and villages and cities all across the state that have community celebrations like this.  And there will be some town somewhere that will have them so that  almost every weekend a celebration like that takes place somewhere.

But that is the endless loud booms that some of you heard on the LoonCam last night.

Just pretend that they were celebrating the birth of our new little loon chick!

But for now, it is back to eggwatch.

Now is also time to tell your friends and family to watch this miracle take place before their eyes.  It still is not too late for them to 'catch the fever' along with you!  Because it is so fleeting and will be gone so quick.  Don't let them miss a minute of it!

Settle in and watch for the first signs that the second egg is hatching or has already hatched.

No doubt you will see the first chick peeking his head out from under a wing and crawling all about.

But watch for a second one as well.

How can anything get more wonderful than this?!

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

Copyright 2014   Larry R Backlund