The Elusive Second Egg

May 28, 2021

Early yesterday morning the female was on the nest and she began to exhibit classic egg laying behavior. At 10:43 am she gave a final push. The problem is that this is a deep nest bowl with a high rim in front. We can’t see into the nest. We prefer to confirm eggs by actually seeing them but we are lucky to get a brief glimpse of the top of one egg when the loons are turning it. For now, we are assuming that there are two eggs. The timing between the two eggs (62 hours and 20 minutes) fits perfectly within the range of what we have previously observed (58 hours to 63.5 hours). During some of the egg turns it appears that the loon is manipulating two eggs.