A Paddle on Stone Lake -By Neva

As the Citizen Science Intern at the Discovery Center this summer, I will be leading and assisting with a number of projects that citizen science volunteers can easily participate in. You don’t have to be a professional scientist to take part in these projects, yet your contributions are the backbone of larger projects, often nation or even world-wide.

One of the several great projects I am working on this summer is working to increase Common Loon productivity through artificial nesting platforms on the Manitowish Waters chain of lakes. This project is in collaboration with Project LoonWatch, a citizen science program based out of Northland College, and gathers information about the distribution and reproductive success of Wisconsin’s loons. If you are interested, check out http://www.northland.edu/about-loonwatch.htm for more information. Volunteers monitor a lake of their choice from approximately March to August.  I will be monitoring Stone Lake, just off of County K.  This morning, Heather and I took a canoe out to the lake to see what we could find. 

We actually tackled two projects in one trip, the other being the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II project.  The Bird Atlas is another great citizen science project to become involved with, especially for avid birders. It documents the distribution and abundance of birds throughout Wisconsin with a focus on breeding times and success. More information can be found here: http://wsobirds.org/about-the-atlas. 

At the shore, we heard many singing male birds in territory where one would expect these birds to nest. We saw a bald eagle pair defending their enormous nest in the tallest white pine around. As we got onto the water, we heard many more species calling, including the Ovenbird, Yellow Warbler, and a Grackle. We were even lucky enough to see otters swimming around. As we made our way around the island, we saw and heard many more birds, defending their prime territory in the larches.  We saw a nest with the eggshells of Canada Geese. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted some large eggs right near the shore. It didn’t register what they were at first, but as it turned out, I had spotted two loon eggs! Very shortly after the sighting, the parent loon swam up aggressively. It was really exciting to spot the nest  because I had never really given a lot of thought to bird nesting, and I found it really enjoyable to watch the birds give clues to where their nests are.

The loon’s nest was in a dry, protected cove along the shore of the island, but ultimately we would have liked to see the loons using the nesting platforms that were put out for them this April.

Interestingly, there was evidence of the platforms being used by the otters.  There were shells left on the platform. I can definitely see how the otters would see this platform as a prime place to soak up some sun and snack on some mussels.

It will be interesting to observe the loon nest as well as the otters as the summer progresses. I can’t wait to (hopefully) see the baby loons. I am looking forward to these projects and many more this summer.