Mom’s Back!
After a second consecutive night of Dad babysitting the chicks on the nest, 38 hours after she left the nest on Thursday afternoon, Mom strolled in at 6:30 am, fresh as a daisy. Where she was and what she was doing all that time will likely remain a mystery but, gee, wouldn’t we love to know.
After greetings and a little bit of family time, Mom gave Dad an hour and fifteen minute rest break while she minded the chicks in the nest. Again, the loons returned to the nest when normally it would have been abandoned long ago, just a few hours after the second hatch. Maybe there’s some sort of protocol that both parents need to tend the nest with the chicks to cement a bond. I’m just theorizing here.
When Dad returned from his break, there was more family time in the cove, including getting the chicks fed. At 8:40 am, Mom, Dad and the two chicks rounded the bend leading out of the cove and out of camera range and presumably headed for open water to start their new life as a typical loon family of four. But there’s no telling with this family. Very little of what occurred over the past two days could be called typical. It’s almost as though the knew they were YouTube stars and wanted to give us a dramatic ending.
They succeeded.
