I love the sound of Loons, also. Especially early in the morning when I have my bedroom window open am just waking up. Lovely alarm clock. Last week when I was driving by the lake near here, I saw a couple Loons swimming side by side. Pretty sight. I live in No. Mn. Dottie

Another clever poster here - I love your 'resting' loon. Is he watching 'Looney Toons' on the TV? Oh I am so sorry, I just couldn't resist. In Philly a pair of red tail hawks built their nest on a window ledge at the Franklin Institute of Science. Talk about 'location, location, location' - it's the perfect spot for a web cam. They have 3 darling fluffy white chicks. They had a nest there last year and one of the chicks fell out. A passing motorist saw it and stopped traffic to rescue it. It was returned to the nest and successfully fledged a little later. Here is a link that might be useful: hawk nest

I used my fingers OJ, and with one on each hand that makes two! LOL I think I read in the info on the right that it will be 2 eggs and then incubation. I assume that means only 2, but I could be wrong. I was surprised at the length of time between #1 and #2 and the fact that she was sitting on that first egg most of the time inbetween. It seems to me that the first would hatch sooner. We had mallards that chose our front flower bed for nesting at our previous house. They spent 2 weeks laying an egg each day and then she sat on the nest for 4 weeks. They all hatched at the same time. Before the next day the mother mallard had that string of ducklings follow her to the river. She didn't even lead them around the end of a ledge. She had those tiny little hatchlings climb up a 4-5 inch cement edge and then drop 2 feet down on the other side. From there they waddled behind mama about 400 feet to the river. That mama went at HER speed and we laughed at those little ones running like mad to keep up. The ducks are safer in the water. That's why they go so soon. I wonder if that RUN to keep up with mama is to build their lungs for in the water. Unfortunately lots of the little ones get grabbed by turtles in the water. I don't recall ever seeing more than 2 ducklings, from each family, surviving that first summer. Thank you, Nanny. I need to read all that.

This is from today's blog: I have been given permission by the Minnesota DNR to recover the remaining egg when I feel it is the right time. They feel that anything a week or 10 days beyond the expected hatching date means it is not going to hatch. One piece of information that I did not know before is that even the DNR has to have a permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to take a loon egg from the wild! It is serious stuff. And I am glad to see that everyone takes it so seriously. So we have now gotten through all the red tape and legalities and I have permission to take the egg whenever I feel it is appropriate. So here is my question for you.... I have pretty much decided that I want to take it at night to minimize the stress on the loons and to keep from imprinting on them that I am a threat. Also, since the sun does not even set here until 9pm and we have that wonderful twilight until after 10pm, my thinking is that I will take the egg somewhere around 11pm similar to the times when I had to go out and restore the camera. And with the new night vision camera this year, you will be able to observe the whole thing even though it is pitch dark! But my question for you is which do you prefer, Monday or Tuesday night? I want to give people as much notice as possible and also allow people who are traveling over the weekend to be able to see it. Also, I want to do it relatively soon to be able to free the loons from their being tied to the nest. So I lean toward doing it Monday night at 11pm but I am also open to Tuesday night if everyone thinks that is better. Let me know what you think. Someone may even want to start a separate subject with that question so that everyone sees it. By doing it on either one of those nights, we have gone almost 2 weeks beyond the expected hatching date and should have removed any doubt in anyone's mind that the remaining egg MIGHT have hatched if we had just waited another day. Now it is time to learn as much as we can from this year's experience. And to let the loons get on with their lives and to be able to enjoy the rest of the summer in the element that they were created to be in. Not tied to a nest. So let me know what you think. But we WILL do it either Monday night or Tuesday night at 11pm. And let some of your family and friends and others know about it when we set the night to do it. It may be a once in a lifetime thing to watch. At least I HOPE it is once in a lifetime. I don't want to have to do it again in MY lifetime! And I hope future years we are talking about how cute the chicks are and not about when to take the unhatched egg off the nest! After the egg is off the nest, I would expect that the loons would return to the nest but fairly soon leave when there is nothing to keep them there. I will plan on leaving the camera running for at least a few days after we take the egg so that you may be able to catch of glimpse of them now and then. AND that we can learn from their behavior and see exactly how they will deal with the egg being taken. Yet one more opportunity to learn about our amazing loons!