FYI….the south platform loons have abandoned the nest and rolled the eggs off the platform. As of June 16 they were 10 days overdue and yesterday they were no longer exchanging places on the platform and had taken to traveling the lake together as a pair. They may try to renest…we’ll have to wait and see, so we will leave everything as is for now.
The north pair hatched two chicks three plus weeks ago and are down to one chick. We received reports of some unusual night activity and screaming from the loons about a week ago but didn’t learn of the missing chick until a day ago. Because the buoys on the north platform were borrowed several years ago from Intermediate Lake, and they need them back because of a new nesting pair of loons on Wilson Lake, we pulled them this morning and was able to verify that the north loon pair indeed only has one chick left.
Also, I was able to talk to the owner of the boat, with the glass packs and mufflers removed, about the law regulating removal of such and informed him that the sound of his boat at least a mile in each direction had prompted a call to the sheriff requesting a decibel meter reading to be done should he continue blasting everybody’s ear drums off and that he should get the issue corrected before he was fined. He stated that he had purchased the boat as is and didn’t know that there is a noise limit on boats on inland lakes. Hopefully he will get it taken care of without intervention by the sheriff or DNR. On that note, there certainly are boats that put in occasionally here with loud mufflers but this guy has a place across from the lake and for the past three weekends has been shattering the peace and quiet for hours on end blasting up and down the lake so no doubt this would have continued all summer long, so hopefully he’ll be a good neighbor and get the issue taken care of now before there’s any further issues.
Until next time,
Cherie