Blue Heron

The other day when I was paddling on my kayak as fast as I could to get to the Loon sounds on my lake, I did make a pit stop when I saw this Blue Heron walking along the shore. I am happy to report he lives on our lake too!

A Loon dream come true!

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Shelley that really loved Loons. Her and her husband built a log cabin on a quiet lake and hoped that Loons would appear. Time went by and still no Loons. However, there was a Loon pair on a neighboring lake and Shelley fell in love with them. She became a Loon ranger to help protect and monitor them. Soon they had babies and all was wonderful in the world. Still...she longed for the day when she could be out looking at her own lake and seeing Loons nearby.
One day when she was out on the neighboring lake, a Loon invader appeared and the pair of resident loons chased him off. Shelley hoped and prayed this Loon invader would find her lake a good replacement. And to her amazement, he came to her lake! Now she needed him to stay and find a mate. The male Loon would sing daily - morning, dusk and sometimes even midnight. Shelley believed he was calling for a mate. Please, please let it happen. And then one day Shelley awoke and hear a "loon racket." She got in her kayak, paddled as fast as she could to the other end of the lake to make sure her male loon was not in trouble. And here is what she found...

A handsome male loon with his own private lake....what more could a lady loon want?

A beautiful female loon....

And a new Loon love story begins!

Loon parents on alert

The male and female Common Loon have the same coloring however if you look at the photos below, you can see that the male is larger - longer neck, longer bill and larger body. As I've mentioned before - they are both very diligent parents. Below you can see them extending their neck to check for any danger to their loon chicks. Eagles are the number one predator, followed by fish such as pike and large mouth bass. Once the chicks reach 6 weeks of age, they are able to outmaneuver most danger.

Following mom

"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom."
-Henry Ward Beecher

My Loon babies have grown!

I want everyone to know that my husband was such a saint when I had him cruising his fishing boat all over the lake to search for my Loon family. We were way at the other end and had been looking for over 30 minutes when we heard the haunting Loon call from the other side of the lake. I was a backseat driver telling him to "be quiet", "no, go over there", "don't upset them" - anyways - thank you honey!
And look how big the babies have gotten! I love them!

Advice for my bird friends

Some advice for a few of my bird friends.



Hurry and eat that seed before the Mourning Doves & the Grackles come!






















Mr. Starling - you need a bath. And you need to be nicer to the sparrows!

Don't even think about having more babies Mrs. Mourning Dove!

Hurry up Mr. Robin

Had to laugh yesterday as all these birds were congregated around the birdbath waiting for this Robin to finish up. Geez, can't a Robin have any privacy?!