May 9, 2011

Still There

In case you haven't made it out to the lake lately, the two loons are still there. If you get up and out early, about sunrise, you can hear them calling. I don't know why they haven't left, but I'm not complaining. We have as much wildlife on the lake as I can remember, including an occasional bald eagle roosting in the trees behind Gopher Electronics. The island is considerably smaller than it has been in years and nesting is more distributed than in years past. Several lake shore residents appear to have created habitat for water fowl and they are going to need it because this extended cold weather and rain has been hard on nests. We've made a few laps around the lake in our canoe and there are lots of abandoned goose eggs and blown-apart nests.

Unfortunately, our old non-native nemesis, the water lily, is about to rear its lake-killing head. Hopefully, the council will get the spraying permit approved soon so we can head the plants off early this year.

Supposedly, there was a toxic chemical (machine cleaning chemicals) dump from the high school a few years back that killed off the fish in the west lake. If the effects of that contamination are lowered, it seems to me that restocking the lake with fish would help balance the flora and fauna. If anyone has a line on how we might go about that, maybe we can get back more of our lake.

No comments: