On April 21, I trimmed the bushes on the loon platform by skiing to it on the ice. We talked to an ice fisherman on the lake the other day, and he said there is 30 inches of ice. We had 4 1/2 inches of snow on April 23. Needless to say, the loons are not here yet. We talked to Mike Meyer, the Wisconsin DNR loon expert in the area, about how this late thaw will affect nesting. He has no idea because this situation has not occurred since they have been monitoring loons. The latest ice-out he has seen was May 5, 1996. That year nesting appeared to be down; but there were not as many loons then, and the monitoring was not as good as it is now. We will keep you posted. At least the cross country skiing is still not bad on the lake! by Tom Wheeler
