Carlin Lake Association

Butterflies endangered?

 

 

You've probably already read the sad news that butterfly populations are severely shrinking at their winter habitat in Mexico.

John Bates states in a recent column:  

"For the fourth year in a row, overwintering numbers in Mexico are declining precipitously, and for the second year in a row, they are at an all-time low.  

"Population counts for this winter are down 44 percent from 2012-13, and down 77 percent from the winter 2011-12.   The overwintering population in Mexico has decreased 97 percent in the last 17 years."

The article gives no reasons or hypotheses about the causes.   But, oh my!   What a diminished world it would be with no monarch butterflies!

 

Memorial Day 2014

 

On this beautiful weekend---this perfect weekend---I want to be sure to remember soldiers who died in the history of American wars.  Sad, sad that young men, and now women, were not able to return home to their families.

A touching article in a recent AARP bulletin published soldiers' last letters home, before their deaths in combat.     (Click link to open if you have time to take a look.)  

The article around the letters says, 

" On a more personal level, these correspondences provide a tangible connection to the past and humanize our men and women in uniform, capturing their distinct personalities, experiences and aspirations. Through their words, we see them as more than just soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors. They are a parent, a sibling, a child, a spouse, a fiancé or a best friend. Ultimately, these letters help ensure that we never forget the sacrifices made for the nation."

The photo is from the beautiul American cemetery in Florence, Italy, from a battle in WWII that I'd never heard of.   The cemetery has 4,398 headstones, as well as names on the wall of an additional 1,409 Americans who were missing in action.   Oh, my, such big numbers, in a battle that was little-known.  

Have a happy weekend, and enjoy this sensational weather.  But, we all won't forget the purpose for the holiday, I know.

 

Keep your eyes open

 

If you may not have noticed Bill Draves' comment below about their exciting wolf sighting, I copy it here.   Fun!  His news will make me pay better attention as we drive or walk.

 

"Anybody else see a wolf cub around here? We saw a wolf cub last night crossing Crab Lake Road onto "collectively-our" 400 acre township land bordering Carlin Lake.

And Bill from Van Vliet saw two wolf cubs near Skyview. If you are wondering, a wolf's tail goes out straight or up when running, while a coyote's tail hangs down between its legs while running."

 

Wow---water level!

 

 

 

It's no surprise to any of us that the water level is WAY up.  But, it's very interesting to have that verified, in this evidence of water level as measured and graphed by Carl Watras.

The graph is measured in centimeters.  So, my figuring, from fall 2012, down at minus 20 cm, up to spring 2014 at 85 cm makes a difference from low to high of approximately 105 cm.  

Google tells me that 105 cm equals 41 inches or three and one/half feet.   Does that number surprise you?   I've heard people guess two feet or three feet.   But, I never would have guessed that we could be more than three feet.

Thanks very much, Carl, for collecting and sharing this data!

(If someone sees that my reading of the graph or my figuring of numbers is incorrect, please let me know.)

 

Spring "stuff"

 

Our rain gauge showed 9/10ths of an inch of rain earlier this week.  If you are at the lake, you know the large and unusual volume of water we are seeing in ponds and ditches.   Sun is predicted for this weekend.  Yay!

 

At a program sponsored by the PI Beautification Committee this week, John Bates told us that the brown and dry needles on pine trees along the road have probably been caused by "snow scald."   The warm sun on the snow this winter let the trees think it was actually warm out.  The trees began to ask their roots to send moisture, which was not possible in the long-frozen ground.    He reminded us that most conifers lose 1/3 of their needles annually anyway, so the brown trees we are seeing should probably not be permanent.

 

We enjoyed a good program at the Discovery Center last week with naturalist Scott Craven, a regular on WPR.   He cited statistics from the DNR, telling that 40% of banded young deer were not able to survive the winter.   Experts assume that this figure holds true for all yearling fawns after this long and cold winter.   Sad, I thought, to know that many of the young deer did not make it.

A thrill this morning:  this oriole attracted to our hummingbird feeder.   He made me start the day with a big smile.

  

Dock's done

 

Thanks to the Carlin guys who volunteered their time on Monday morning to get the pier at the boat landing installed.   Because of the higher water level, the project took a little more time than usual, but the promise of Jeannie's monkey bread motivated Bill, Danny, Cecil, Bob, Richard, and John.

Please know that these volunteers keep the annual price we pay for our key access to the lake at the same amount year after year.   Those funds then can be used for insurance and improvements to the dock itself.

 

And, especially thanks to Jeannie for hosting this group both spring and fall.  They will readily admit that her spectacular baking adds to their motivation to show up!

 

 

 

 

 

First water quality reading of 2014

As you know if you tried to take a look here yesterday, the Typepad server was down all day.    This is the post  I was going to post yesterday, Monday, morning.

 

In the Citizen's Lake Monitoring project that Carlin Lake has participated in for years,  (first Gary and Sally Wise, then Ramona and George Kubica, then Alex Watras, and now, John Farwell)  the first reading of the spring must be done within the first two weeks after ice cover leaves the lake.

John did our spring reading Sunday afternoon.  The end-of-winter clarity readings have stayed mostly the same, measured by how deep one can read the black and white divisions on the secchi disk.  This year, the measure was 15 feet 3 inches; last year, 15 feet; earlier, 13 feet and 14 feet.

 

To me, his most interesting reading was for water temperature.   In both 2013 and 2014, the ice-out date was nearly the same, May 10th and May 9th.   But water temperature last year was 57 degrees; water temperature this weekend, at each end of the lake, was 46 degrees.    Brrrr!

(It's going to feel a little chilly for the Carlin men who are volunteering to install our boat landing pier this morning.)  

 

 

I'm told that after ice melt, the lake turns over and sediment may be stirred up.  Also, ground water continues to seep into the lake.   John says our water level has continued to rise this week, even with no rain.

I've copied an explanation below that explains the phenomena.   Click here for the link to the original article with graphics.   

 

In the winter, most of the water under the ice is 39 Fahrenheit; however, there is a thin layer of water under the ice that is colder than 39 and therefore less dense. This thin layer of water floats on top of the lake under the ice throughout the winter.

In the spring the ice melts off the lake, and the top layer of water on the lake gets warmed by the sun to 39 F, which matches the temperature of the rest of the lake water. Then the spring wind picks up and the lake mixes again.  This is called spring turnover.  Oxygen and nutrients get distributed throughout the water column as the water mixes.

 

Busy, busy day

 

Lots of Carlin folks think it's summer, and were using today to get piers into the water.   On a late morning ride round the lake, we saw docks already in place in front of the Swifts, the Huemanns, the Kubicas, the Hayes', and the Davis'.    Others were working at it, puzzling to solve the problem of higher water levels---two feet higher than last spring, one installation crew estimated.  

The McCalls are sitting pretty this year, as their pier is now just the right height, after a few years with really long, dry legs.   The LaPeans discovered that their wheel-in pier would end up partially submerged, but already have that problem solved---larger wheels.  

The Carlin boat landing pier is scheduled to go in early next week.   The "engineers" will have to make some adjustments, as pier sections that were on dry land last October are now resting in the water. 

Waldo the Loon and Mrs. Waldo were back in the bay between us and Swifts this afternoon.   I think they are enjoying the lack of activity on the lake right now.    I took this second photo above, to demonstate to you that I did Google to find out how to zoom the camera on my phone---I'm really making technological progress!    

(Here's Waldo, if you don't spend much time with kids' books.)

 

 

Where's Waldo?

 

Unless you remember a children's book---Where's Waldo?--- in which you had to hunt for a little fellow named Waldo hiding on each page, you will wonder what I'm talking about.     I'm talking about this photo I took of our bay, with a loon just hanging out and enjoying the solitude.    I know----you will need a magnifying glass to find him.  Give a click to enlarge and see if that helps.

(I had my phone down by the shore with me this evening, and then realized that I didn't know how to make it zoom.)

 

Anyway, this may give a little idea of how high the bay between us and Ann and Duanne is now this spring.

And, in other spring news, for those of you not here at the lake this week:   The spring peepers have been serenading us every evening.   The hummingbirds found our feeder within minutes of my hanging it outdoors, and have been flocking to feed ever since.   And, John saw two male mergansers while he was working on our dock this afternoon.

Now, the next thing we need is some warmth.   Coming up, I'm sure!

 

Even evergreens had a hard winter

 

You have probably been noticing brown-looking conifers, after our cold and snowy winter.   

A recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  told about the damage that many evergreen trees are experiencing.   Their title on May 5th:  "Evergreens aren't."  

DNR officials tell that the wind, snow, and excessive cold from this winter did cause temporary, and in some cases even permanent, damage.    Christmas tree farmers are particularly worried.

The article cites three causes.   In some cases, the long-frozen ground may have kept trees from getting enough moisture.  Also, winter burn is caused by changes of temperature; that is, very cold nights followed by days with bright sunshine.  And, third, as we know, trees in areas where road salt and chemicals are used show the most brown branches.

The DNR folks say to wait and see, hoping that new growth will appear on these damages branches soon.

An unrelated rain report:   Our rain gauge showed 7/10ths of an inch of rain this past weekend.   Ephemeral ponds are full and running into each other.  I've heard reports of ticks in the woods, but still too chilly for mosquitoes.