Saturday, July 6, 2013

Another loon family found

Thankfully the pair of loons in our bay seem to be staying together, even after having 2 nests fail this spring.  From what I've researched, loons typically stay together for life unless one dies or they have trouble having offspring. Two Springs ago, when a similar swamping of nests occurred in our bay, there was only one loon swimming about all summer.  I'm encouraged there are still two hanging out thus far this year!

I do have some new loon pictures with babies though!  A neighbor dropped a hint that there was a family of loons about 5 km away in a small inlet in Clearwater Bay.  That evening I jumped on our Sea Doo and checked it out.

Well, there they were.  However, they certainly behaved like a normal loon family; darting about, calling out when I came anywhere near. (like 300 meters).  The problem with the Sea Doo is that it is very hard to keep in one spot.  A pedal boat is much better and makes less noise.  I was determined to somehow get some shots so spent about 1.5 hours slowly moving back and forth, getting closer and closer to the loons. My plan, which seemed to work, was to acclimatize them to me and the boat and by the time 1.5 hours went by, I was able to get near enough to snap a few photos.

The young didn't ride on the parent's backs at all, and seemed bigger than the little ones I photographed years ago.  One of the young was even able to duck under water and swim for a while before popping up about 10 meters away!

I sure miss the moments photographing the family in our bay; they were very trusting and even fed their young while I sat in my pedal boat, just meters away.  I am still thankful I was able to get a few quality pictures to add to my Loon collection.





Monday, June 24, 2013

Well, another year, another failure.  just heard from the neighbour at the lake that the loons abandoned the nest yesterday.  It then rained like crazy and they can't even see the nest any more.  There is a slim chance they might start a 3rd nest, but it's very rare.  I think we're done again.  They made it to day 20; only 9 more to go and then failure.  So sad.  Might try blogging again next year!

Sunday, June 16, 2013


 







This is the second nest this pair of loons have attempted this spring. The first was washed out by the rising Lake of the Woods levels over the past few weeks. The Lake is controlled by an outlet to the Winnipeg River System (which eventually empties into Lake Winnipeg) and it seems like they haven't quite got a hold of how much water to let out or hold...  One would think that loons aren't so smart as they seemingly should build their nests higher up the land. The problem with loons is that they need to nest right next to the water as they are unable to walk on land. Their back legs are situated so far back in their bodies that walking is impossible. They actually drag themselves up on the nest with their wings!  This design, however, allows them to swim like a fish.  

This second nest and its 2 eggs were set up on June 1st and it takes about 29-30 days for the eggs to incubate. As long as the water doesn't rise, the eggs don't get wet, the local eagles don't eat the eggs (The loons leave the nest up to an hour at a time), I might have 2 baby loons to photograph right in the beginning of July! Hope to be out at the lake next weekend (June 23rd) to update the blog.