Water Clarity: July 31, 2011

Algae continues to color Lake Puckaway's waters green, but you may have also noticed a bright green "slick" on the surface of some channels or coming out of the Fox River.  This is not single-celled algae, but watermeal (Wolffia sp.) the worlds smallest flowering plant.  Each individual is the size of corn meal and is capable of producing a tiny flower, but they almost never do.

This week I have added two new sites to the District's monitoring program.  One is just south of the dredge bank sometimes called bird island, or mid lake.  The other is at the Fox River inlet.

Water Clarity: July 14, 2011

Algae is beginning to turn the water green, and reducing water clarity on Lake Puckaway.  Water clarity increases moving east to west through the basin. 

Forster’s Terns Nesting Fails

The Forster’s terns nesting on Lake Puckaway came to an end June 22nd when high water destroyed many of the 143 nests, causing the rest of the colony to abandon the site.  These birds nest on floating mats of vegetation, which are susceptible to wind, waves and water level increases.  Nesting was late this year because of high water, and there is a chance that they may nest again, but given that I only saw 10 individuals on the lake Thursday I don’t think it is likely.  It has been a bad year for these terns in our area.  They normally nest in large numbers on Lake Poygan in Winnebago County, but that colony had all of its nesting material taken away by this spring’s flood and high winds.  The LPPRD is keeping tabs on Forster’s terns and their habitat and will develop a program to stabilize the lake’s population.