I had the experience of a lifetime last night and it all occurred on my birthday too! The wildlife biologist and his team stopped by to let us know they would be capturing and banding the adult loons at this end of the lake and wanted to know if we might like to watch the process. After watching the pair across the channel for what seemed eternity, I was all for some up close and personal time with the loons. The plan was to retrieve the adult pair and the two chicks after dark and bring them back to our dock to band the adults. It was a late night, but a success. The male and his two chicks were retrieved, but the mother was too tricky and followed behind the boat lamenting the loss of her chicks all the way.
Of course no harm nor foul (no pun intended) occurred and all were returned safely to water shortly after the team completed their measuring, weighing and banding. As it turns out, the male was banded about 15 years ago and seemed to be in great condition. Both chicks are growing fast and as you can see from the photos, they are very soft and fuzzy. As they worked their way through the list of duties, someone had to hold the chicks and of course I volunteered whole heartily. While holding the smaller of the two chicks, I was able to calm him/her (they are to young to determine sex) by stroking his/her head and he/she fell right to sleep in my lap.
It was a wonderful experience and I feel very lucky to have participated.
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