If anyone needs/wants pictures of a nesting Loon, there is an apparent Loon nest in central Cass County. The location is Cass County road 42 (or 28th Avenue NW) where it skirts a small lake called Brockway Lake. This is about 3.5 to 4 miles east of Backus and a mile or so north of 4th St SW. (These are on google maps) The nest is 75 to 100 yards south of the road on a small tuft about 25 yards from the lake shore. There is a place to pull off because the location is heavily used by locals for fishing near a flowing culvert under the road.
I spent some time watching the loon pair in this location. It was very entertaining as the nesting bird seemed bored and was moving about as though he/she were looking for a comfortable position. Then again, who wouldn't get bored sitting in one spot for a month waiting for something to happen! Neither bird seemed particularly bothered by me or the folks fishing in the area. At times the mate would join the one on the nest and rest nearby. Maybe trying to keep the other one company. At other times the one not on the nest would be out diving and fishing close to the nest. I kept wishing I had one of those serious camera systems I see other MOU members using. It would have been fun to capture some of the activity on film. I settled for some pictures with my measly 20x Canon and tried to be satisfied observing through the 60x scope. The bird was close enough to nearly fill the field of view of the scope. If anyone in the area wishes to visit the location, it pretty easy to find. Please feel free to email me for info, if desired. Sid Stivland Plymouth ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
