June 2017 Loon Nest

I’ve been meaning to post an update on our nesting loons for more than a week, but I’ve been a little busy! As of this morning there was a loon sitting on the nest. I first spotted the nest 19 days ago, on June 6th but it is likely that nesting had been underway for about a week earlier. This would make the eggs 25-26 days old. The gestation period for loon eggs is 28 to 30 days so with luck they’ll hatch in 3-5 days. The nest is abandoned shortly after the chicks hatch.

The lake level has fallen 10″ or more since the nest was started. The net effect of this drop in lake level has been to increase the distance between the nest and the water. If the distance to the water becomes too great, they’ll abandon the nest however it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen this time. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

The last time a loon family successfully nested on Clary Lake was in 2008.