On May 8 the ice finally went out and the loons arrived. We have a pair of loons and they have already been checking out the nesting platform. All the snow is gone except for a few piles from plowing and the roads are clear. After a low temperature of 19 last night we may be in for a stretch of relatively normal spring weather.
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
