Loon Update
The Loons are doing very well. The chick, 'Precious Kittie', is growing big and strong, recently developing her real feathers. We thought it might be interesting to show a few developmental photos. The individual photos are captioned with her ages.
Pleasant Lake Loons and Mergansers
Our loon chick is doing well and spending more time diving and testing its wings. Its parents spend more time apart looking for food. Merganser female now has only 5 chicks (down from original 7) and we caught her moving them away from a diving loon in the evening.
Pleasant Lake Boat Parade
This year's theme was Westward Ho! We thank Dave and Janet Kidder for being our Grand Marshals. Great thanks to Jen Esten for all the great pictures as well. As you can tell, lots of fun was had!
Pleasant Lake Loon Update
We are very sad to have to report that one of the Loon chicks has been lost. We don't know if it became weak for some reason or if maybe its sibling ostracized it or what the reason could be. On Friday evening we saw the chick separated from its family but then rejoined it.
Pleasant Lake Loons Growing Up
It's amazing how quickly the loons are growing up. It likely has something to do with the fact that eating is such a large part of their days lately :-)
Loons on the Lake
The conditions this weekend haven't exactly been ideal for taking pictures with lots of cloudy grey skies but all seems good with the loons. Eating is a main focus of the loon chicks these days. They're definitely starting to grow quickly on us with their faces getting a little longer and both of them hardly able to fit on a parent's back without the other falling off.
2018 Second Chick
And we have a second chick! At some point last night or early this morning our second loon chick hatched. This second loon is named Proud John. Everything seems to be great with the loon family. The loons are officially out on the lake and swimming around now, so if you're boating please take great care at the Turtle Cove / Slope n Shore end of the lake.
2018 Loon Chick!
We couldn't be happier to welcome our first loon chick of 2018 to Pleasant Lake on Father's Day. We expect another egg to hatch in the very near future. We can't thank Jen Esten enough for sharing her beautiful photographs that let all of us experience this. John Wilson was given naming rights this year.
Pleasant Lake Loons and Kearsarge
We're glad to report that all is well on the loon raft everything seems to be progressing along just like it should. The loons proved to be difficult to shoot again this week up close so I figured that I could at least take a long shot so people can get a better feel for the area where the loons are.
Loon and Wildflower Update
First of all, great thanks to all for the kind emails that you sent in after the last update. It's truly heartwarming to see how deeply folks care about these emails and the sense of connection they bring to so many from all over the place!