It’s been an “interesting” three days since we first saw the pip on what we assume was egg #1. The chick hatched in the dark, early hours of Thursday morning but we didn’t get a look at it until daylight. The loons continued incubating the second egg and we hoped to see another hatch soon. […]
Sure looks like it!
Comments in the YouTube chat show some misconceptions about loon anatomy, particularly about anatomical structures lacking in loons. Here are some features found in a wide range of birds but not found in loons: The Crop – A crop is an enlargement of the esophagus that allows storage of food prior to continuing to the […]
Our Loon Cam 2 pair has so far had an uneventful incubation process. These two loons just don’t seem to present the non-stop drama of the Loon Cam 1 pair. But that’s good for us; we don’t need the stress of anxiety. And it’s good for the loons; they can concentrate on taking care of […]
Now that the Loon Cam 2 pair is almost half-way through its incubation period, it’s time to clear up some confusion about the history of the pair and reading the bands on the loons’ legs. In 2016, intruding loons interfered on this territory enough to cause a nest failure. Without a nest or chicks to […]
During the Loon Cam 1 chaos of the intruding loons on the evening of June 15, the parents decided it would be safer if they each guarded one chick. Mom took the elder chick around the bend and started fishing according to reports we received, while Dad and the 12 hour old chick remained near […]
It seems that something has cursed the Cam 1 pair with this left-handed blessing. In previous years we’ve witnessed hail the size of golf balls pelting the nest, an AWOL Mom during hatch, lost eggs – both kicked into the water and buried in the nest – and an eagle flying off with a chick. […]
Two Loon Cams going and major events happening at both of them. On Loon Cam 1 the pip was first observed yesterday at 4:16 pm and this morning the chick hatched around 4:00 am. It’s a feisty one and it escaped Mom’s sheltering wing and made a solo voyage. Mom called for Dad to come […]
It’s getting close to hatch time, which we would expect to be most likely Sunday or Monday. Hatching is a relatively long process. It can take up to 20 hours for the chick to completely break apart the shell. The first clear visual sign of an imminent hatch is the pip, a tiny hole at […]
It’s been twenty-three days of incubation now and getting close to hatch time. Reports of the average time for incubation generally call for 27 to 28 days. However, reported ranges of incubation times span from 25 to 30 days. Now that we’ve been closely following this pair for six years, it would seem reasonable that […]