Day Five

The black flies continue….and viewers have noticed an injury or damage to feathers on the left side of the male loon’s head.  This might indeed have resulted from earlier scuffles with a rival loon, visible on camera at the beginning of the week. The loon on the nest now, mid-afternoon on Friday, is likely the male loon. Although both pair members share incubation duties, behavioral studies have found that the female loon is more likely to have the night shift.  Interestingly, the male loon’s share of incubation duty peaks in the first half of the nesting period, after the egg(s) are deposited.  This gives the female more time to forage and recoup the energy spent on producing eggs.  Later in the incubation, she may take on more nest sitting.