Friday, May 1, 2015 6:23 am CDT

Guest User May 1, 2015

42 degrees Cloudy Wind Calm

Sunrise 6:02 am CDT Sunset 8:19 pm CDT

The loons have just been to the nest for their morning visit.

It was a short one. But a visit nonetheless.

In fact two short visits including mating for at least the 18th time.

Now we need them to make it a longer visit. Like a visit a month long. With eggs underneath them.

It is a beautiful May morning.

The lake is like a sheet of glass. The beauty of the loons. The sun just coming up peeking through a mostly cloudy sky. Spring rain is on its way.

And a female loon still on the nest quietly mewing.

What could be better?

How close is she to laying an egg? Only she seems to know. And she isn't telling us right now.

Once again, as always, we can only watch. And hope.

All in good time, I keep telling myself. All in good time.

But I can't help myself to keep from thinking 'Would you hurry up and get it over with?!'

We can be so impatient.

Loons take things as they come.

There is rain predicted here for this morning. It will probably be here in the next couple hours. Rain that we need badly.

But it should not last too long. Radar shows a relatively narrow band without any severe weather with it. All of that is very good.

The plants on the nest need the water. I have been surprised that the plants have not been growing more than they have this year. It may be because of the lack of rain plus some of the material for the roots to grow into may have washed away on some of the very windy days.

But as nice as flowers are, what we really want to see are eggs.

So once again today, keep up the watch for that first egg. The exciting time.

The first egg starts the clock running on everything else.

Once the first egg is laid, we can usually expect the second egg in 2 to 3 days. Loons normally lay 2 eggs. Sometimes only one. And on rare occasions they might lay 3 eggs. I have never seen them lay 3 eggs on the LoonCam nest in over 10 years of watching.

From the laying of the first egg, it is about 28 to 30 days for the egg to hatch. At least that has always been the 'conventional wisdom'. But with the LoonCam we have been able to add to our knowledge by being able to observe loons up close and personal. And we have been turning some conventional wisdom on its head.

We have seen the eggs hatch consistently under the 28 to 30 day time frame.

Have a wonderful May Day!

And thank you all for being such wonderful people who welcome every new visitor and share your knowledge of loons with them.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015 7:11 pm CDT

Guest User April 28, 2015

59 degrees Mostly Cloudy Wind 4 mph NW

Sunrise 6:06 am CDT Sunset 8:15 pm CDT

Well, the suspense builds!

The male loon has been on the nest four times in the last couple hours and has done some serious nest building.

Even as I am typing this, they are back up on the nest and have mated once again. By my count this is the 14th time.

Now the female is sitting on the nest 'mewing' a little bit (sometime soon we will take a refresher course in loon calls) and undoing some of the work the male did in building a nice deep bowl for a nest! She is in a different spot.

Can you say "teamwork"? lol

Then the male got back on the nest and tried to repair some of the damage with some more serious digging and nest building in his original spot..

Having the advantage of watching banded loons, we can now tell who is on the nest and who does what. Something that in the past researchers could only guess at.

What has been so interesting to me is that the male has been doing probably 80% of the nest building.

Which raises an even deeper question for me. HOW does the male know that it is getting close to the female's time to lay an egg. Obviously he cannot feel an egg growing inside his body.

So how does he know that it is growing inside her body?

Do they talk? If so, how? And what kind of information is passed from one loon to the other? And how does he know the time is imminent and a nest must be built?

Things too Wonderful to comprehend.

As usual, when we think we have answered one question a whole host of other questions are raised.

How wonderful to be able to watch and learn!

This increased urgency of nest building is exactly what we have been waiting for!

Continue to watch to see how often they visit the nest and how long they stay and how serious they are about nest building.

The next thing to watch for is the behavior of the female.

One of the times when she has gotten on the nest and settled into the bowl of the nest, she will start to act differently.

She will sort of crawl up on the edge of the nest and she will obviously be straining. She will probably spread her wings out somewhat to brace herself.

This whole procedure will probably take several minutes.

Then in one sudden movement, the egg will pop out and rest in the bottom of the bowl.

The female may remain on the edge of the nest for some minutes totally exhausted. And then she will probably leave the nest and get in the water.

But they will not leave the egg unattended for long.

For the next month the male and the female will take turns incubating that precious egg. And hopefully in a couple days, they will add a second egg to their nest.

Excitement builds.

The egg could come at any moment.

Do NOT miss it!

Monday, April 27, 2015 5:38 am CDT

Guest User April 27, 2015

27 degrees F Clear Wind Calm

Sunrise 6:08 am CDT Sunset 8:14 pm CDT

It is a chilly, crisp morning on "Loon Lake".

Today promises to be a spectacular Minnesota spring day with lots of sunshine, mild temperatures with a high of 69, light breezes and spring flowers blooming and everything turning green.

And with loons calling on the lakes, what could be better?

Our loons continue to visit the nest with greater frequency. Right on schedule. We want them to go faster but they will proceed at their pace and all in their good time.

There isn't much we can do about it even though we want to be in charge. Now the loons are in charge. And they will do what they want when they want.

But the increased frequency of visits to the nest and especially the start of nest building activity while they are on the nest are all encouraging signs.

I guess I have not mentioned it yet, but it seems to be definite that this is the same pair that nested on the LoonCam last year. The male with a blue stripe band and the female with a green band on her leg.

The female was new to this nest in 2013 but did not nest that year. Last year she nested and produced 2 eggs and 2 healthy chicks. We were able to catch (with some difficulty) and band her and both of last year's chicks.

The male was banded in 2012.

It still amazes me when the same pair returns to the same nest after many months and thousands of miles of travel. How do they do it? What goes on in those brains of theirs? How do they find their way? How do they know? What kinds of maps do they use? What do they "think"? What or Who guides them?

A thousand and one questions that are just too wonderful to understand.

Yesterday was a relatively calm Sunday with no crises, no Canada geese and no ospreys. That is a good thing for our loons.

Today you should watch for continued visits to the nest with increasing frequency and for longer periods of time.

Watch for more serious nest building. Rearranging of materials. Reaching out and pulling nesting materials in and placing them around the loons body. Digging with their feet to make the nest bowl deeper.

Someone asked a couple days ago how deep the nesting material is. That is a good question. Even though I have never actually measured it as I have built the nest and put the material on, I would say that it is 6 to 8 inches deep.

It is made up of cattails and bulrushes and other weeds and materials that wash up on shore.

Exactly the same types of materials that loons would normally find to nest on.

It has been interesting to watch which loon does what. With the bands we can now tell the difference between the two of them.

This year, as last, it is the male who seems to be doing most of the nest building. But it is still early so watch to see if there are changes in that behavior.

At some point, the nest building activity will become even more urgent.

And the we will hopefully see our first egg being laid.

Everything depends on that egg being laid. And that determines all that happens from that point on.

Enjoy our loons today.

Enjoy the sunshine.

And enjoy all the Wonders that have been placed in your life.

Saturday, April 25 11:28 pm CDT

Guest User April 26, 2015

41 degrees F Clear Wind 7mph NE

Sunrise 6:11 am CDT Sunset 8:12 on CDT

Once again today, we were reminded how little we truly know.

When you think you have seen everything, something unbelievable happens out of the blue.

Two days ago it was the geese that decided they wanted the loons nice nesting platform.

They didn't count on the fact that loons don't give up so easily. And one of the loons unceremoniously chased the goose off the nest and did not even allow it to save its dignity. The loon may have stabbed the goose because the goose jumped backwards, hit the camera with a loud "THUD!" and then bounced forward off the nest and beat a hasty retreat from the loons.

Hopefully a lesson well learned..

Early this morning it was encouraging that the loons were once again on the nest and mated. They definitely are calling the nest their own.

But shortly after they left, someone else decided to pay a visit to the nest.

A 'large bird' tried to land on the cable that helps to hold the camera upright.

He didn't count on the fact that the cable is flexible and isn't like a branch. When it began to give way, the bird quickly took off. And as he hurriedly left, he also hit the camera with a "THUD!".

But then he swooped back in a few seconds later and seemed to take some of the nesting material with him as he swooped in.

I cannot be 100% certain what kind of a bird it was, but looking at the video several times I think it may have been an osprey. You can see Lee's video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0oyPmapc-E

Now what is strange about that is ospreys have not been believed to be any threat to loons. An osprey is sometimes called a 'fish hawk' because they feed almost exclusively on fish.

And loons do not seem to mind when an osprey is flying around the lake.

But let it be a bald eagle that is flying around and the loons go crazy.

One is a danger to loons, the other is not.

But it is doubly strange that the osprey would 'steal nesting material' off the platform.

There is an abundance of cattails and other nesting material all around the lake. They certainly do not need to steal from the loon's nesting platform.

Within a few minutes the loons were back and swimming around the nest. Once of them even got back up on the nest for a few minutes. Apparently they had been watching from somewhere out on the lake and when they saw the osprey messing around with their house, they were quite to come and check to see that the burglars had not done any damage.

Then apparently satisfying themselves that everything was ok, they left again.

The loons have been visiting the nest with increasing frequency and actually starting to work on building a 'bowl' to hold the eggs.

All of those things are very good signs that we are approaching that exciting time of seeing the first egg laid.

The excitement continues to build!

Text and tweet and call and let your family and friends and schools know that now is the time to start watching the drama unfold.

Friday, April 24, 2015 9:25 am CDT

Guest User April 24, 2015

45 degrees Cloudy Wind 3mph NE

Sunrise 6:13 am CDT Sunset 8:10 pm CDT

The loons have already been up on the nest and mated again this morning.

Each day we get closer to the exciting time when the first egg is laid. And the countdown clock begins.

There have been continuing questions about if this is the same pair as last year.

I have not been able to/taken the time to see if I can see their bands to identify them. But it has been my 'feeling' that it is the same pair.

Why?

Here are some of the reasons. But only definitively seeing the bands will tell us for sure. Both loons are banded, which argues that it we have had contact with them before. It still could be the 'other pair' on the lake which we have also banded. But that would mean we also had a territory change.

They seemed to recognize that this was the place where the nest had been even before I got the nest in the water. They swam in close to shore and watched me as I was working on getting the nest in the lake.

They seem to recognize the nest and the surrounding area and took ownership of it very early.

But all of those are just circumstantial reasons until we get a good view of the bands.

I got a note yesterday from Kevin Kenow.

Kevin is the person from the USGS that did the banding and has had a multi-year project studying loons. He knows them better than almost anyone else.

Kevin watched yesterday's video of the loon/goose confrontation on the nest and here is what he said:

"Hi Larry,

Thanks for sharing this great video clip! It appears that the aggressive loon is the female banded last summer...I got a glimpse of the green/silver band combination on the right leg as the loon was exiting the platform.

Kevin"

So it looks like it IS the female that we banded last year. I would trust Kevin's eyes and opinion over almost anyone else. And I think I have gotten a glimpse of the blue stripe band on the male, but not good enough view that I would swear to it.

And it is also fascinating that apparently it is the new female that was the one who got up on the nest and actually chased the goose away! She has definitely taken strong ownership of the nest.

When they start nesting, we will have many opportunities to get better views of the bands. But for now it looks like the female is the one we banded last summer. And probably it is our male from the last several years.

Minnesota Bound

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