Loon Babies !!!
 

The loon pair on Mirror Lake had two babies about five days ago !!! Amazing that they can swim on their own (albeit, not far) at such an early stage of development.

Here is a picture.

For more pictures go to: http://www.mirrorlakenh.com/loon.htm

http://www.mirrorlakenh.com/loon_with_babies.jpg

As our boat name would indicate Loon-A-Sea.... we spent a good portion of Friday and Saturday, wandering around the Big lake.... We saw 2 pairs of twins, and a few only children this weekend. I believe we encountered 7 total... all at various stages of life......

And in case your wondering, the parents do get tired of the young-ins on their back, we watch one set of twins get dumped off three times.... Guess it was swimming lesson time.....

I have some picture I will try and post later.....

The first baby we saw was about 3 weeks ago.... At that time we saw several nests that where likely new, and the parents where sitting on the eggs.... This past weekend, all the nests we had found where un-occupied and we saw various babies....

My wife and I have been loon watching for many years.... The babies normally start to appear the last weekend in June through the first 2 or 3 weekends of July.....

Even more interesting...
 

Even more interesting is to be able to watch these little puffs of feathers grow, learn to swim, learn to dive, and finally go by their "house" and find that Mom, Dad, and "kid(s)" have moved to the ocean.

Dave

That is a little late, I would say the average time is around the 4th of July. We did have one born one year in our area this late though and he/she was just fine.

That experience is what keeps my wife and I going all over the lake every summer watching the chicks grow up.... because it is a journey to watch.....

My wife and kids got to watch flight training one afternoon...
We have watched fishing training....
We watch the nice fluffy feathers give way to the Adult feathers
We seen parents tired of carrying the young on their back, and fling them off....

All and all it is very rewarding.

However if you spent large amounts of time watching these lovely creatures, sometime you end up seeing things you wished you hadn't. Nothing is more sorrowful then listening to a pair of loons after they have lost a nest.... We went buy and one of the pair was on the nest, we went back buy about 20 mins later, after a couple of big boats had plowed into the cove, and found the next empty, and found the loons singing a very sorrowing tune...

Nothing like watching Nature, the good and the bad.....

Some more pictures
 

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We do that too-go to places to see if the babies are born yet. We never go close though because the parents feel threatened. I remember a year we had two babies -they were pretty big so we thought they would be ok -but one day we heard sorrowful cries and sure enough only one baby was there. It makes you so sad.

19 mile bay
 

We were so lucky to see a baby loon chick appear on 19 Mile Bay just before the fourth of July weekend. We were so concerned that the chick was so young and for two potential predators that could harm the chick.

One that the store at 19 mile bay had opened and boats, jetski boats (way too many) wakeboard boats, pontoon boats, rental boats, cabin cruisers, boats that have skippers not a clue how to handle a boat in the bay came out from everywhere and heading to the store were all over the bay. It was like a washing machine. In fact we haven't seen that many boats over the last 4 years that the store was closed.

Now we see inexperienced boaters that have no clue what a chart looks like back again. They are back going back over the rocks in the no wake zone between Farm and Chase. It happens about every other day and twice more on weekends. I use to yell "Rocks!"....but I'm not wasting my time anymore.

Ok you get the picture....Now back to the Loon chick.....These new parents of this baby had never seen such activity with huge wakes since the store has been closed. I posted on the Winni forum please watch out for the new chick before the 4th.

Then there was the Bald Eagle coming back to its nest on Farm Island. We were walking along 19 mile Bay beach and we could see the eagle looking above us for the chick. After that weekend we looked and looked for the baby. Nothing for days. We were worried that it was not a good ending. Well the baby is gone got hit or snatched.

Surprise!.... I went in just after sunrise this morning to our dock and there was Mom and Dad hanging out close to the chick. The chick is much bigger and healthy. Unbelievable how it ever survived. So far it has.....

Oh so happy!! We saw your baby a couple of weeks ago. Isn't it awful how you worry about them between the boats and eagles and hawks and and and and ....