Dead in the water...

Once again (10 out of 11 years) Lake of the Woods water levels have risen significantly. This rise swamps out the low lying loon nest.  Our nest is probably about 2 ft under water by now. So sad. There is a small chance the pair might try one more time but time is flying by. Hopefully the pair will stay together.  The accepted theory was that Loons mate for life. This is relatively true; unless they have trouble having young.  It is at that point they might leave to find another partner.  I'm not certain the 2 loons in our bay are the exact same 2 we met 12 years ago or not. There was one year that there was only one loon in the bay (after 2 failed nesting attempts the previous year) so all bets are off.

I'm including a shot of the neighbour's dock. The top of the dock is usually about a meter above "normal" lake levels.  The cans on top of the dock are full of water and are trying desperately to hold the top of the dock in place, above the cribs below.

Okay, let's try this again! My loon pair trying to have young again!

Two weeks ago there was just some casual dating happening in our bay.  This last weekend was a great surprise as we see there is a nest with the loons (they take turns) sitting on the eggs!  I pedal boated reasonably close and grabbed some photographs of the happy parent(s).  Funny thing is that they'll leave the nest for hours on end and then sit on them for hours on end. I guess they know what they're doing.

30 days is the average incubation period, so if all goes well, there might be some baby loons in our bay come the end of June! I won't get my hopes up as the Lake of the Woods water level has been steadily rising and only a few inches more will swamp the nest.  The nests are pretty primitive. The loons basically sit and then drag mud and sticks from around them, into the nest.

For those unfamiliar with loons, they have to nest right by the water as they cannot walk on land. They drag themselves onto the make-shift nest and drag themselves back into the lake to feed. They're back legs are too far placed in their body to walk on land.  This unique feature, however, makes them incredible swimmers!

Stay tuned!  Next post will be in two weeks when we return, hopefully to see them still nesting.
More photographs of the 2014 Loon talent show are on my website.

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.

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!

 

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. 

The loon guy is back in business! By complete accident, while boating close to my father's cabin in Lake of the Woods, we found a new loon family with two young! The pair that tried 2x unsucessfully to reproduce last year because of flooding of their nest, never showed up this year. So finding another family, though much tougher to photograph than our friendly loons in our bay, was a great surprise. Check out more shots on my webpage!

Disney family trip 2011

Had a great time with Sheri's side of the family in Disney at the end of March. Was in a Disney park every day but one. Unfortunately we had two days that just poured buckets; made national weather news because of the amount and longevity of the rain. Didn't seem much like Florida those days!

Some of the highlights were rides we had never been on in other visits to Disney; Expedition Everest, Finding Nemo puppet play (way cooler than it sounds; check my webpage for shots) and The Hall of Presidents (okay, joking on the last one)

Actually, on a day where we dropped off our kids at Universal Theme Park, Sheri and I went back to Disney and went on all the "lame" rides that people don't generally go on. Had a blast and no lineups! Carousel of Progress, The Hall of Presidents, Country Bear Jamboree etc.

See a wack more shots on my webpage.

Jessica headshots

Had an old student call me up to fire off some headshots for her. Had a great time, and I think the photos are beautiful! Shot these just outside my art room at school. I love the abstract nature of lockers, seating areas, doors and tile squares when pushed out of focus. Jessica had great patience with me as I fumbled my way around!

MBCI Hawks win provincial semi-final vs Selkirk@

Trailing 2 sets to 1, and 7 points down, the MBCI varsity boys volleyball team scraped their way out of a desperate situation and went on to win the 4th set and take the match in 5; 15-13. See more shots on my webpage

The MBCI (Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute) varsity boys team defeated the 1st ranked Selkirk team on Friday, Nov 12th 3 to 1 sets. It was a great final (well, for us) with lots of noisy and exuberant fans showing up for both sides! To see more shots, visit my website

Gimli fishermen

During the Thanksgiving weekend I was fortunate enough to hook up with a few seasoned fishermen who call Gimli their home port. I went out two mornings to witness (and help, yuck fish are slimy, especially when trying to handle a camera...) the tending of their single net, just outside the harbour. Harvey Benson, the owner of the boat, used to be a high school principal in Gimli over 25 years ago. He's been fishing with his friend, who was born in Newfoundland but found love in Gimli when he was stationed here when he was much younger, for over 25 years. Great bunch of guys! Harvey even taught me how to fillet a pickeral. I changed the photographs into black and white to give them a more timeless look. To see more shots of fishermen, go to Fishermen. Loons and landscapes can be found on my website as well.

Packing up the cabin

Well, the cabin season is officially over. Spent the last weekend doing all the mundane but necessary things to kiss the cabin good-bye til next May. My father lives at the cabin for 6 months of the year but our portion of the cabin still needs to be winterized and closed.

My father is restoring a 56 Thunderbird and had tried to get a welder out for numerous months prior to convincing my our friend Warren to help us out. So while we dragged boats out of the water, disconnected docks, winterized motors etc. Warren spent all his time trying to weld a new bottom onto the old top of the T-bird.

One of my favorite places to go is a bog about 2km from our cabin. It was created by a beaver dam and is a wrotting kind of place. It also is a fascinating place to catch interesting light, fog, and lots of dead stuff. I always go out there to capture something different.

Hawaii or bust

Okay, had to go back to work today. Something about paying for all the bills or something like that. Well, one of the crazy things we did this summer was take the family to Hawaii... yup in summer. It's not as crazy as you think... Weather there is the same all year, and we scored some crazy sale prices on tickets, so we went!

Some highlights were learning how to surf (all of us no less), walking on a few weeks old lava, swimming with a pod of about 40 dolphins, and spitting out the enormous aftertaste of swallowing too much salt water while snorkelling. You can check out some shots by checking out my webpage.