It is easy to take the Lac des Roche’s loons for granted as we normally enjoy their sounds for six months of the year. City visitors at the lake last week were surprised and delighted to hear the calls of several loons, so a phone call the next day to local birding enthusiast Wendy Marshall, resulted in some interesting information on loons in our area for this time of the year. While the Loon Survey recording continues for Bird Studies of Canada, the young and adult loons are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from one another since the breeding plumage of the adult bird changes from the distinct black and white patterns to a more brownish winter plumage, similar to that of the younger bird. Adult loons usually leave our lakes in October with the young departing a few weeks later. Chances are fairly good our next visitors from the city, expected in late October, will still be able to enjoy the musical sounds of the loons. Wendy added the two eaglets that spent the spring squawking from a nest near her home and spent a good portion of the summer screaming from the treetops all around the west end of the big lake, have now left. Presumably, they have moved to a river where a spawning salmon make an easy meal for a young bald eagle. The mother eagle is still hunting around the lakeshore but her dives in the clear water provide feed that she can enjoy entirely to herself. She rarely makes a sound these days although she creates quite a disturbance when she is in flight near the many noisy kingfishers she shares the lake with.
Great neighbours
Earlier this month, while Mother Nature provided the hot, dry weather, family, friends and neighbours provided the necessary additional manpower to assist the owner with a roof replacement project on Boultbee Road residence. I had the opportunity to listen to the steady stream of banter among the work crew. While it was entertaining, I could have sworn it was the same chatter and kidding I had heard when many of this same generous group of fellows assisted with our concrete pouring, five years earlier. What a great community we live in!
Don’t feed wildlife
It is harvest and cleanup time for the local hobby gardeners. Several neighbours have lamented over the amount of food their gardens supply to the local wildlife and critters. Deer can be particularly destructive and can wipe out a string of peas in one night — this I now know. One resident says her garden is too small to share with the bugs and the local wildlife, so she has installed a low-voltage electric fence, which has successfully deterred the hungry deer. Judging by the nibbling that continues on my zucchinis and strawberries — yes, our strawberries are still flowering and producing fruit in late September — I wonder if it isn’t the many frogs, which come out of their burrows after dark, that are helping themselves to our food?
Fish stories
Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake, the community and lake stewardship society, wishes to thank all the participants who submitted crewel reports for the 2009 summer fishing season. These records of stocked fish caught in Lac des Roches are used by the Ministry of Environment to determine the success of past stocking practices and potential changes to the program for the future. To collect data next year contact them at www.lacdesroches.org.