Around Loon Lake - November 7, 2015

Our lake water level has come up about 0.15 m or 6  inches during the past week .  While the Trent Severn Waterway people haven't altered the dams, we have had considerable stormy fall weather with  some heavy rains.

There are still some people visiting their cottages and there are still some small boats and one pontoon boat being seen on the lake. And on the subject of pontoon boats, I've been told that we have a total of 22 of them on the lake!

The mother and juvenile loon are still on the lake and while they spend some time apart, they are sometimes seen together. They are both in their fall plumage but the juvenile doesn't have the jet black beak of the mother. Otherwise, you'd never be able to tell them apart.

This past week I learned of some interesting developments within the Trent Severn Waterway. There's major work within to better predict water levels during spring freshest and they have purchased some new electronic instruments to be used to measure the actual water content within snow; as compared to traditional methods which are very labour intensive. We are lucky because one of these new instruments will be used at the local Paradise Lake headquarters. I will be visiting the office later in the winter to see the device and learn more about it.

This past week and next week has the annual fall deer hunt underway. There has not been much evidence of hunting and the deer population is away down. It is believed that the very severe and cold weather of  last winter, when combined with the bear and wolf populations did significant damage to the herds.