Every year, Dwayne Struthers and Jeff Roddick build, maintain and install 7 loon rafts at different locations around the lake. This year, Dwayne and Joshua Burch installed cameras on 4 of the loon rafts. Joshua Burch Photography is providing the video footage for this post. This footage has enabled us to observe a loon family through its seasonal cycle. Keep visiting weekly to see the updates.
Note: Due to the amount of video on this page, it might be very slow to load. But we thought you would like to see all this wonderful wildlife.
Week 8 – This has been quite an adventure and a great learning experience! Sadly, it will be our last update as the loons have left the nests. We hope you enjoy seeing them in the lake this year.
We had great success with Nests 1 and 2. Both nests saw the hatching of two eggs each. Note in this first video, there is a crack in the shell and in the second video, therer are two chicks.
Great shot of Loons and Turtles sharing the same raft.
Nest 3 – Unfortunately the loon abandoned the last egg as the chick was hatching, who knows why this may be the case but the cameras are there to observe nature and sometimes this can happen with inexperienced pairs or unknown outside factors. About 3 days later, the deceased chick was eaten by a raccoon.
Nest 4 was sadly predateded by a racoon. Although this is a sad ending, it is always expected that some of the rafts will come under fire from predators.
Week 7 – We have exciting news! Nest 1 eggs have hatched and the chicks have left the nest.
We had great news this past week with Nest 1 eggs having hatched and the chicks have left the nest! The first egg had a small hole where the chick uses what’s called an egg tooth to break through the tough shell. It then takes about a day for the chick to break from the egg and then is fully mobile once out. The second egg then hatched the day after and the cameras captured it beaking away from the egg which is incredible to capture on film.
The other 3 nests don’t have much to report as they are still in the incubation stage. Some of the nests have had visitors from muskrats and turtles. Both don’t cause any harm to the eggs, with the turtles using the rafts as basking platforms and the muskrats taking some of hte dry grass to use themselves.
Weeks 5 & 6 – We have 2 eggs on each nest. These weeks are incubation periods and is a waiting game for the eggs to hatch.
Week 4 – Great News! Three of the loon nests have 2 eggs each.
Raft One: Great news, this pair of loons now has 2 eggs. The Mother is moving the eggs so she can sit on them.
One night a muskrat came to visit and there was an interaction between the loon and the muskrat, but the muskrat only seemed interested in the nesting material.
Raft Two: This nest has seen a lot of mating behavior as well as a visit from an otter. By the end of the week, 2 eggs were laid. Exciting we have 2 eggs!
Raft Three: This nest also saw the arrival of eggs with two being laid, and a visit from a muskrat. Luckly there were no eggs when the muskrat visited.
Raft Four: This nest has seen a lot of mating behavior as well as a visit from an otter and a Canada Goose. Hopefully eggs will be laid this week.
Week 3 – Exciting news! All four rafts have loons! And we have one loon egg!
Raft One had a lot of mating behaviour and one egg was laid on Sunday May 18. This is very exciting news! Hopefully another egg will be laid this week.
A mink visited the raft but hopefully will not be back. The loons were not on the nest at the time.
Raft Two had a pair of loons make an appearance on the raft and have initiatied mating. This nest has one egg.
This nest also appears to be a frequent spot for the otter family to eat their catfish dinner.
Raft Three also has a pari of loons. This is a new pair for the cameras, so it will be interesting to see how this family gets on this season.
We have seen mating on this raft and a visit from a racoon at night time. The racoon was also checking out the camera. I am hoping that because there weren’t any eggs or loons on the raft, it won’t be back but racoons have been the main culprit last season.
Raft Four has been repositioned this year and it looks like the usual pair have moved in. Mating behaviour has been seen. This pair will probably be the last pair to lay eggs as they mated later.
Glad this colder weather hasn’t postponed breeding activity.
Week 2 – We have eggs! – Mallard Duck Eggs
Raft Two: There were several visitors to this raft. The first was a pair of otters who enjoyed playing on the raft. One enjoyed a fish dinner on the raft. The otters were not interested in the duck eggs, but did go check on them several times. Unfortunately, a crow came to visit and stole the duck eggs. The loon did not come back.
Raft One: The loons were very busy this week with the female calling to the male to mate. At night time, there was also a muskrat visitor to the loon raft who was stealing the grass from the nest.
Week 1 – One Raft has loons!
Raft One: In the first week, two of the rafts had activity. We had a pair of loons visit the raft with mating occurring over the weekend. A great sign of things to come.
Raft Two: There was an interesting development with this raft, a female mallard laying 4 eggs in the corner of the raft. This raft also encountered another visitor in the form of a large water snake. It didn’t seem interested in the eggs and was only using the raft to bask in the sun. This morning, we had our first loon visit the raft. It seemed a little startled by the nesting mallard. This will be interesting to keep an eye on.
