As soon as loons arrive back on their territories, they start courting. Its urgent to nest as soon as possible, especially when they arrive on their breeding grounds late. After the nest is built and the eggs are laid, it takes about a month for the eggs to hatch. And it takes 3 - 4 months for the young loons to be ready to fly. If the eggs are laid too late, the baby loons wont be ready to fly before their lakes freeze, especially in the northern reaches of their range. Baby loons cant be called nestlings for more than a few hours, because as soon as they dry off, they leave the nest for good! They can swim by themselves for a little while, but when they get chilled, they climb onto one of their parents backs and snuggle in under a wing. Loon parents leave their babies sometime around the time that the babies are 11 weeks old. At that point the baby loons cant fly yet. They will have to learn many things all by themselves: how to fly, how to find all their own food, how to protect themselves against predators, and how, when, and where to migrate. These arent the greatest photos ever, but it was a lot of fun watching and learning. Thats the best way to learn about animal behavior...watch and learn. 6/26/2014
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 01:18:15 +0000
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