LoonCam

[Lakegeezer]

The Loon Center (aka, Loon Preservation Committee) LoonCam is online at www.loon.org/looncam.php . So far, lots of nothing, but the loon pair are frequently on camera near the nesting area. No eggs yet, but they have been mating and building the nest.

[Lakegeezer]

The Loon Center folks predict the looncam pair won't nest till Saturday or early next week, so the live view will be largely unexciting till the eggs arrive. Here's a 2 minute time-lapse YouTube video from this morning, stripped of the quiet time and showing the loons checking out their nesting spots. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/WEOpBrutDZc

[kbh]

Originally Posted by Lakegeezer

The Loon Center folks predict the looncam pair won't nest till Saturday or early next week, so the live view will be largely unexciting till the eggs arrive. Here's a 2 minute time-lapse YouTube video from this morning, stripped of the quiet time and showing the loons checking out their nesting spots. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/WEOpBrutDZc

Great video, thanks for putting that together...

[wadden]

Where is this particular nesting area?

[Lakegeezer]

Here's a 2 minute YouTube time-lapse from this morning. https://youtu.be/UKgWkDrJpXs They only seem to be active early for the past few days. The camera scene gets a bit jerky because viewers are changing the view - but as a result, there are some nice closeups of them trying out the nest. Live feed is at loon.org (click the live Looncam button in upper left side of page).

[noreast]

I like just staring at it, It lowers my blood pressure.

[Lakegeezer]

Today's early morning time-lapse is a bit longer - at 2:07, but worth it. The loons are really getting into building their nest now. They are early birds, doing most their work between 5 and 6:30 AM. If you are up early tomorrow, check out the live looncam at loon.org. It is amazing to watch them live.

Here is the link to the YouTube time-lapse https://youtu.be/w0X-qdJmcWU

[Hillcountry]

Originally Posted by wadden

Where is this particular nesting area?

I was wondering the same thing. Their website says "this particular, pond" so I guess it's a situation where they don't want folks searching and perhaps trespassing on someone's private property.

Cool stuff anyway.

[Lakegeezer]

Originally Posted by wadden

Where is this particular nesting area?

The Loon Preservation Committee staff asked that the location of the site remain private. It is located in the lakes region, but not on Winnipesaukee.

[snowflake]

I've tried opening up to the live cam without success. I remember having this problem last year but some kind person made a suggestion which I've forgotten and I had success. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Lakegeezer]

After a day off, the loons were back at early morning nest building. The Loon Preservation Committee scientists say it is normal for them to take a break and even work on the nest for a week or more before the eggs arrive.

Here's the link to the YouTube time-lapse video https://youtu.be/wvcylVDg6SI

[Lakegeezer]

Originally Posted by snowflake

I've tried opening up to the live cam without success. I remember having this problem last year but some kind person made a suggestion which I've forgotten and I had success. Any suggestions? Thanks.

The camera has been in operation almost two weeks now and is pretty reliable. Occasionally, the streaming service has glitches, and shows only a black screen. Also, the camera is rebooted occasionally (a 3 minute downtime), so that new parameters can take effect. Finally, the stream doesn't seem to work on Kindle Fire devices and sometimes gets cranky on Androids. Windows and iPad/Phones work well. The biggest problem is the frame rate. If anyone has pull at TWC, the project needs the top business class service to be more than 5 Mbps upload speed. 50/5 service sounds fast, unless you are trying to upload a 24x7 HD video stream. 2/10 would be fine.

PM me if you have technical issues that you want checked. If it isn't working, reload your browser tab or try again after a few minutes.

[Lakegeezer]

Lots of activity yesterday, with over 100/hour #looncam viewers around 7PM. The loons spent hours pulling muck up from the lake to build up their nest. After dark, she laid an egg. This morning's YouTube video clip is at https://youtu.be/CO7QYAZarjo It is full-motion (rather than the normal timelapse), of the loon turning the egg.



Check out the live cam is at loon.org/looncam.php

[Rusty]

I keep the video minimized on my tablet as shown in this screen capture. It stays on the screen minimized even when I leave the Loon webste.

[Cindido]

So beautiful !!! Loved watching the American Eaglets grow and now I'll be hooked on the Loons

[Lakegeezer]

The first day after the egg appeared was filled with egg tending, switching nest duty, continuing to build the nest and defending territory. Its hard to know what to keep and edit out, and this one ended up at nine minutes. Also, we are seeing some camera freezes in the recordings. The camera is old and we're asking it to do a lot - stream live, upload a frame every 10 seconds for the time-lapse and when we ask it to record another stream to the local disk - the camera has a few senior moments.

The egg should hatch around June 12'th± if all goes well.

Today's YouTube video (of yesterday) is at https://youtu.be/lgG8Qw7JizU
The live feed is at www.loon.org/looncam.php
The Loon Preservation Committee (Loon Center) YouTube channel, where you can see all the videos, is at: https://www.youtube.com/c/loonorgnh

[Lakegeezer]

On Wednesday, there was quite a bit of egg tending. Near the end of this 2.5 minute video, the egg is clearly visible. Clip at https://youtu.be/DVYypJSL43A

Please excuse the poor quality video. We are still learning the capacity of the camera (or lack of). This was captured with a lower resolution and frame rate, clearly was a step in the wrong direction..... but the loon action is still cool.

Over 2000 viewers saw the looncam on Wednesday. If only those bugs would get off the poor loon's head. Live cam is at loon.org/looncam.php

[Lakegeezer]

The egg on the nest that the Loon Center's looncam is watching has been there 29 days. Normally it takes 28 days to hatch, so if everything is OK, the time is near.

You can still see the looncam live at www.loon.org/looncam.php and it will remain online till the adults lead the chick off the nest and head to bigger waters.

[Descant]

Latest? I've been away for a few days.

[Greene's Basin Girl]

Saturday it was still sitting on the artificial nest.

[Cindido]

From the Loon Preservation Committee:


Still Sticking.....
Mon, Jun 20, 2016

After 36 days, approaching 10 days past the expected hatch, the incubating loon pair continues to sit through temperatures in the mid-80s. This is hard work. Less than 3% of all nest attempts we’ve recorded over the past four decades have gone past the 5th week, like this one. As we watch, and watch….and watch this loon pair, their stick-to-itiveness underscores an evolutionary tradeoff. Their efforts at this point, for this nest attempt, are a costly mistake. But in the process of natural selection, the risks and energetic costs that would select against overincubation are, with each additional day, more and more clearly outweighed by all the advantages that come with an unyielding drive to tend the nest.

Sticking to a Nest
Thu, Jun 16, 2016

We’re now at 31 full days of incubation, and the chances that the single egg will hatch are low. Loons sometimes stick with a nest, or overincubate, long after the egg should have hatched. Most inviable eggs are abandoned in the first week after expected hatch, but some loon pairs overincubate for a month more. A new record of 84 total days on the nest--eight weeks past the expected hatch date—was set last year by a pair on Squam Lake.

Eggs that don’t hatch may have been inviable from the start, or may have been chilled, overheated, or otherwise compromised during incubation. Loon Preservation Committee field biologists collect confirmed inviable eggs for analysis and archiving, following a protocol under state and federal permits. On average, about 10% of successful nests, where at least one egg hatches, yield a whole, unhatched second egg. This gives some indication of how often eggs are inviable from the start, since we know the conditions were adequate for the second, successful egg in these nests. Infertility, and failure of a fertilized egg to develop, may be influenced by the health and contaminant burden of the loon pair as the egg is formed, as well as the host of factors that can inhibit development once the egg is laid. Protecting loons means understanding and preventing these factors where that can done. But even when some factors, like environmental mercury, are clear problems in general, it’s usually impossible to pinpoint a single cause at particular nests. So the unhatched egg we’re watching so closely on the webcam will likely remain an unsolved mystery. We are rooting for these loons to move on soon to a second nest attempt, with better luck. And remembering that the loons are in it for the long haul—this female loon has fledged nine chicks since she was originally banded in the late 1990s, already enough to assure her legacy in the gene pool.