June 6: loss and hope

Arriving Saturday, we began to search for loon pairs and boated out to check out the floating nest that we had found two weeks past. Oddly, there was no loon on the floating nest and only one egg. We checked a few more times throughout the day but no loon came to sit. I guess either one egg hatched and one didn't or something else happened to scare away the loons and one egg has been eaten. Regardless, there was nothing to see there. (edit. Sunday. We heard there had been a high speed boat crash involving alcohol and fog, onto the tiny island and right beside the loon nest the week before. Chances are the crash and subsequent rescue and cleanup probably scared the loons away. How sad that our poor decisions always affect someone or something else)

On Sunday we started noticing that "our" pair of loons seemed to be hanging around the 1st nesting area in our bay. As the day progressed, the two even took to climbing on the land for short periods of time. The birds also spent a great deal of time during the day being together (nudge nudge wink wink)

(mature material alert, ha ha ) At one point one of the birds climbed onto the shore (close to the 1st nest) and the other climbed up behind, then on top of the first bird and then over and onto the grass in front of the first bird! Well, this did look suspiciously romantic and I figured we should run back to the cabin and grab some tea candles and some Barry Manillo music...

Well, I'm no expert, but this looks mighty suspicious and after doing a big more research it definitely looks like they're trying to do a second laying. I'll have the neighbor keep a close lookout and keep my blog as current as possible. We are planning on going out next weekend. If they nest again and the gestation period is around 26-31 days, then I'll be on summer vacation and will hopefully be at the lake to photograph some more baby loons... yeee haaa!

To see more of my photos of loons and other stuff, check out http://www.loonphotography.com