Sunday, June 15, 2014 7:25 am CDT

Guest User June 15, 2014

58 degrees Rain Wind ESE 10 mph

Sunrise 5:24 am CDT Sunset 9:02 pm CDT

We probably all would be happier today if we were loons.

The rain is forecast to continue most of the day today.

Then tomorrow is supposed to be sunny before more thunderstorms that are predicted every day for the rest of the week.

But who knows. While we may not be able to rely completely on forecasts, there is one thing that is sure about Minnesota weather. Like the old saying says, 'If you don't like the weather, wait for 5 minutes!' It will change.

The loons could care less about the rain. Whether they are sitting on water, swimming, or having water come down on them from above, they are well adapted to it.

With all the rain, I have not had a chance to see the loons yet this morning. But I have heard them. So I assume they are doing ok. I was able to see all 4 of our loon family last night about 7:30 pm when I got home.

They were doing well.

And the two little chicks were active and swimming and being fed.

For those of you who may have been able to check on the LoonCam late last night, you saw some of the lightning that constantly lit up the sky and the nest. One flash of lightning after another. And then the loud thunder that followed each bolt of lightning.

It went on for a couple hours.

It has been some time since I have seen lightning so frequent and for such a length of time.

Fortunately, most of it stayed up in the clouds and there was very little cloud to ground strikes. So our camera and all the other equipment survived it. But in one of the quirks of the internet, something in the endless path that the signal travels to you decided to reset itself and the signal to the UStream servers dropped overnight. But that got reset and you should now once again be able to see the LoonCam and see the nest.

Yesterday was a very interesting day in this area of the country.

In the Twin Cities I have seldom see a storm like what went on for most of the afternoon. The winds were almost hurricane force. In downtown St Paul, the trees were bent over and whipping back and forth. Branches broke off and blew down the city streets. Signs and anything loose also went skidding down streets as the rain came in sheets.

Big plate glass windows on the skyscrapers and the skyways shimmied and shook and bowed. Skyways were even creaking as the wind buffeted them and you could actually feel them shake.

Boats on some of the lakes in the area were capsized and sunk.

I was worried about what I would find when I returned home last night.

But in talking to one of the neighbors when I got home, we got almost nothing here!

He said there had just been some rain and almost no wind to speak of. We were far enough north to be spared the brunt of the storm that hit The Cities.

Tonight the LoonCam will finally go black for the season. And another season of watching our loons will come to an end. And then all the work of disassembling equipment and taking the nesting platform out of the water begins.

But I will try to periodically give you an update of how our loons are doing.

And hopefully ALL the reports will be good reports.

Let me say THANK YOU once again to all of you for being such wonderful. supportive people and for forming yourselves into a "loon family". That has been so great to see.

So keep checking my blog for any updates. Hopefully there will be only good news and nothing urgent. But I will try to keep you informed of how the loons are doing.

Questions or Comments? LoonCam at yahoo dot com

Saturday, June 14, 2014 5:34 am CDT

Guest User June 14, 2014

63 degrees F Cloudy Wind 2 mph NE

Sunrise 5:24 am CDT Sunset 9:02 pm CDT

We are now at our longest days of the year.

We may gain another minute or two to the sunset times but these are the longest days of summer for the next couple weeks.

Our loons are already active this morning.

They are out and swimming around.

The two chicks are in the water and swimming back and forth as mom and dad bring them minnows for breakfast.

An eagle flies low over the water near them.

The loons are ever aware and call in alarm with their wails as they watch the eagle. The chicks scoot a little bit closer to mom or dad for protection.

A seagull is dive bombing the eagle as it flies into a tree on shore nearby. Everybody needs to stay on alert.

But the important part this morning is that our chicks are safe and have made it through another dark night on the lake.

The parents have been ever so attentive and protective. They really have been model parents. Early on this year I had some apprehension about how the year would go as especially the female seemed to just swim off without the seemingly much concern that there was an important job to do in protecting and incubating those eggs.

But once the chick first hopped on her back in the water, it was almost as if some kind of a switch flipped on for the female loon. Her behavior changed. And she has been there with her mate and for the chicks.

The male still seems to be doing more of the close attention to the chicks. Letting them ride on his back and making sure he sticks with them. But both loons have been doing a great job of working together.

Yesterday there was a lot of boat traffic on the lake including a number of pontoons, boats and canoes that seemed to be specifically wanting to see the loons. Several of them came closer than I was comfortable with, but none of them did anything purposely malicious.

Once again it was a case of sometimes we can love our loons too much.

About midnight, one of the carp boats came directly through the buoyed off area between the nest and the shore. Fortunately he did not cut the television cables or everything would have come to a quick end for the year.

But it is time to bring the nest in and return the use of the lake to everyone else.

I think what I will do is look at turning the camera off Sunday night. That will give you a couple more days of trying to catch a glimpse of our loons. Hopefully all the equipment will be safe until then.

And then it is time to bring the LoonCam season to a close for another year.

Today may be a little quieter and more peaceful for our loons. We have had a little bit of light rain already this morning and the forecast is for rain most of today and through about midday tomorrow.

The rain will keep down some of the boat traffic on the lake and give our loons a break as well.

Nothing is supposed to be severe but I did see several bolts of lightning to the northwest just a few minutes ago. So it is on its way.

There apparently is another pair of loons nesting on the lake, although I have not been able to get out to verify it. As of a couple days ago, the eggs on that nest had not yet hatched.

I have to assume that it may be the same pair that we banded two years ago. But at this point I cannot confirm that.

Hopefully later this summer we can catch all of the loons and retrieve any data recorders off the once we banded before. That will allow the USGS to download the data off those recorders and to find out where our loons have traveled and what they have done in the last two years.

There is so little that is known of loon behavior during the winter and this will add a lot of information about that part of their life.

We know that most of our loons from Minnesota and this part of the continent go to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina down to Florida during the winter. But there is so much that is not know about their behavior on the ocean.

So they see their mates? Do they see their chicks? Do they recognize each other or spend time together? So many questions. And so few answers.

In one of the most amazing sagas of nature, the adults will leave to fly south anywhere from the end of August through the first part of October. They will leave the chicks behind.

Then a month later, the chicks will fly south. Having never before been anywhere except on the lake where they were born and maybe a neighboring lake, they will make a trip of over a thousand miles to their wintering grounds.

How do they do it? How do they know where to go? How do they find their way? Who or what guides them?

All we know is that they do it. How is a mystery.

It is another of those "I don't know how You do it, but God you done good!" moments.

And then even more amazing is that when the parents return north next spring, the chicks will stay on the ocean for 3 years before they ever come back north! And then supposedly come back to the same lake they were born on, or a lake very close by. But there is so much more to learn about their behavior.

But right now, all we need to know is that our little loon family is doing well. The kids are healthy and the parents are doting and attentive.

That is enough for any of us.

Questions? LoonCam at yahoo dot com

Friday, June 13, 2014 5:22 am CDT

Guest User June 13, 2014

43 degrees F Clear Calm

Sunrise 5:24 am CDT Sunset 9:02 pm CDT

The sun is just about to peek over the horizon.

In a few minutes the first rays will clear the trees and skip across the water.

Little low wisps of fog drift across the lake and up over the nest. But those will burn off quickly once the sun has its way.

Today should be a much quieter and sunnier day for our loons after the winds and clouds yesterday.

But even yesterday, the nest was spared the worst of the winds. With the direction the winds were from, there were large whitecaps out in the middle of the lake but at the nest itself there was just the side effect from the waves. The waves hitting the nest all day long were big enough. But at least it was not the whitecaps further out on the lake.

The loons rode the waves all day long like the pros they are.

Right now both of the adults are floating together well away from the nest. It looks like - at least I want it to look like - two bumps on the back of one of the adults that could be two chicks under the wings.

But I cannot see them clear enough to be able to say for sure that both chicks are under those wings, but it sure looks like it.

This morning there are two eagles flying over the lake looking for fish. Hopefully NOT looking for little loon chicks.

Their presence is enough to be of great concern to the loons who wail over and over.

One of them has just caught a fish and is now flying away. Obviously they too have hungry mouths to feed this morning.

The last time I got a good look at them last night, both chicks were with the adults and looked to be doing fine.

One was swimming alongside the adults and the other chick was perkily perched on top one of the adults, happily riding along through the waves.

I know that there is still a very faithful group of people watching and hoping to get any glimpse of the loons. Even a quick swim-by. I hope that you catch a glimpse of them today.

I was surprised last night when the male came swimming by the nest with the chicks in tow and he actually veered toward the nest and got up on the nest.

There was a wail from somewhere out on the lake and he immediately answered with 6 wails of his own as he sat on the nest.

While he sat on the nest, the two little chicks swam together in the waves. But they never came closer than 5 or 10 feet from the nest. It was a great contrast to watching them after they first left the nest, where they would swim around the nest peeping loudly as they looked for a way to get up on the nest with mom or dad.

But now they swam peacefully together, bouncing on the waves, while dad spent at most a minute on the nest before he slipped back into the water and joined the chicks. And then they were off once again.

A couple mornings ago in the blog I talked about how most researchers have talked about a special area where the loons will take the chicks after they have left the nest. This area away from the nest where they would spend the first couple weeks with the chicks.

At the time I was writing that, I had a mental block and no matter how hard I tried, I could not come up with the name that is usually used for that area.

It is usually called a "nursery". That is simple enough and fitting enough, isn't it.

But in all these years of watching the loons that I have used the LoonCam, I have never seen that behavior - of going to a separate area that is sheltered or in weeds as a 'nursery.

The loons that I have observed closely have always just stayed in the general area of the nest after the chick have hatched. Out in the open portion of the lake. This is not to say that in certain cases loons do not use a 'nursery area'. Just that I have never observed it with these loons and this nest.

And then they gradually venture further and further from the nest with the chicks.

Yesterday I was able to verify with some other people on the lake that the other pair of loons that has been on the lake has nested. But they apparently have not hatched their eggs yet because he had observed them still on the nest yesterday afternoon.

I have wanted to get out on the lake and do some observations of my own.

But with the loons on the nest or even closeby, there is no way that I can get out on the lake at all.

Now that the chicks have arrived and are a few days old, hopefully I can get out with the canoe or a boat and do some of my own observations.

Another resident on another side of the lake asked me yesterday about the single loon that has been hanging out in front of their house.

I wonder if that is the "intruder loon" that we have talked about before that has had confrontations with "our" loons from the LoonCam?

If only we knew all the answers to all the questions.

Or if we even knew all the questions!

A couple people have asked me what happens to the nest and the camera when it finally gets shut down.

The camera is taken off the nest to protect it from the weather and potential vandals between now and next year.

The nesting platform itself is pulled in and put up on shore where it will stay until ice out next spring. Repairs and changes and improvements will be done over the summer, until more repairs have to be done next spring from the effects of winter snowstorms and wind.

All the anchors must be taken up. All the buoys must be brought in . All the cables that bring you the picture and sound must be rolled up and stored. The swimming platform must be brought in out of the way of boat traffic.

So there is a lot that must be done after the camera is shut down.

There is a local community festival in August and they have already asked me if it would be possible for them to display the nest so that people can see what it looks like. So the nest will make that trip to be on display for that day.

That alone is not an easy thing to do because of the bulk and weight of the nest. It is a major project to transport it anywhere.

And they have asked me if I would be willing to be there to talk about the nest and answer questions.

Even the nest itself has become a 'star'.

But it doesn't hold a candle to the main attraction - our loons.

And especially the two little loon chicks!

Questions or Comments? LoonCam at yahoo dot com

Thursday, June 12, 2014 5:18 am CDT

Guest User June 12, 2014

56 degrees Clearing Wind 10 mph NW

Sunrise 5:24 am CDT Sunset 9:02 pm CDT

We are just about at sunrise and already the chicks are in the water and the parents are rapidly bringing minnows to them for breakfast.

We had rain again last night. Right now the clearing line is right over us. Very dark clouds to the east. Clear sky to the west. So I think it will be a bright sunny day for our chicks

When the loons first start nesting, there is a reassurance when I come home or when I look down at the nest that I see a silhouette of a loon sitting on the nest.

Now that the chicks have hatched, there is a reassurance when I look down at the nest to NOT see a loon sitting on the nest. How quickly things change.

But when I spot the loons on the lake, the first thought that I have is, "Where are the chicks? Are there two of them? Are they in the water? Are they under the wings? Are there TWO bumps under the wings?"

And then when I finally see both chicks, I can relax.

Right now I am relaxed.

I have seen both chicks this morning!

They look good. Healthy. And active.

What I have seen with the loons here is that they stay on the open water of the lake.

After the chicks hatch, they stay in the general area of the nest. But with each passing day, gradually they range further and further from the nest.

Chicks are almost totally dependent on the parents for their food for the first 6 weeks of their life or so. Gradually they will be able to dive and learn to catch some of their own food. But in the early weeks they are very dependent on the parents.

One study done years ago showed that a chick rode on its parent's back about 60% of the time during the first week of life and by the second week that had decreased to about 10% of the time.

During these first two weeks of the chick's life, they are so vulnerable. And when they are away from the adults they are even more vulnerable from predators above and below the water.

Yesterday morning a pair of eagles stayed in the area for some time and understandably it caused great concern to the loons.

But our chicks survived that and are still safe today.

But it is a good reminder for all of us as we are out on the lakes.

Observe our loons and especially the chicks from a distance. Bring binoculars.

Normally if you stay 300 feet away (some people say 500 feet) you will cause little stress or danger.

But what I have seen and what I myself 'want' to do, is to get CLOSE.

We can love our loons too much.

And if we scare the chicks off the backs of the parents or if the parents dive and leave the chicks on the surface, we have just exponentially increased the possibility of the chick being taken by a predator.

What I have seen is people loving loons too much rather than purposely doing something malicious.

So share that information with your family and friends. Our loons will thank you.

We will leave the LoonCam up for a few more days. Hopefully you will catch a glimpse of the loons once in a while. But maybe sometime this weekend we will look at shutting it down for the year.

I will continue to update you on how the loons are doing. Although like the loons themselves, that will gradually become more spread out.

Let me mention one other thing that you might be interested in. Next week I will be doing a presentation on loons to a "Pioneer School". This is a special program for children which is done in an old one room country school where the kids from first through sixth grade see what it was like to go to school in the 1800s or early 1900s. Hopefully it will be a special time for them. I wish I could invite you but obviously I can't.

What I can invite you to is the presentation that I will be doing at the Isanti County Historical Society in Cambridge, MN on Wednesday, August 13. I would love to meet you and talk with you.

Questions or Comments? LoonCam at yahoo dot com

Wednesday, June 11, 2014 5:29 am CDT

Guest User June 11, 2014

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

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