Loon Survey # 4

I am royally bummed out. This morning, I found one opened loon egg on the bottom of the pond next to the loon nest and some broken egg shells here and there in the nest.

I pulled the loon egg from the pond bottom to photograph it. You can see that it is brown in color. So, it looks like the female only laid one egg.

The mated loon pair was out on the pond fishing, but no chick was in evidence. However, the loons were calling frantically for about a 36 hour period from Tuesday evening until about Thursday morning. I think that part of that cacophony was due to the chick hatching out and part of it was due to the loons trying to protect their chick from predation. No luck.

That is life. Here one minute, gone the next. But, there may be time to initiate a new clutch of eggs if they do so by mid-July. Cross your fingers!

Loon nesting information from Lee Attix about our Caesar Pond loon saga: "If they did hatch a chick, they won't re-nest. If the nest failed (predated), they might try again. Key observations to look for are continued presence of both adults, time/activity around the nest, and courtship. Note; second nest attempts are not always at the same location."