Early this morning was day two of the Minnesota Loon Count, and for the first time since I’ve been here I was assigned to go out on the waters of Flat Lake.
Flat Lake is pretty big, but pretty shallow except in one area where it reaches a depth of 19 feet. Waterfowl love it though because of all the wild rice that grows on it.
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Gina was the captain of this vessel, and Rachel manned the bow as we searched for those elusive loons. I sat in the middle and just enjoyed the fact that I was out on the water. We went back and forth across the lake in a grid-like formation to cover all areas. We also had to stop many many times for Gina to clear the motor propellers of vegetation. Like I said, it’s a shallow lake with lots of vegetation.
When we started out, we counted over 100 trumpeter swans, but saw no signets. I’ve heard that once the rice crop is ready in late July or early August, this lake will just be covered with hundreds of trumpeter swans. It is the lake right behind the RV sites, so it will be easy to pop over to see them all.
For all of our searching, we were only able to find two loons and no offspring. 
That really didn’t surprise me though since this lake is so shallow that few fish live in it. Fish are the main diet of loons, so why would a lot of them be here?
With all of the rain we have been having, the wild rice is laid over and not standing up as it would in even shallower conditions. Native Americans are the only ones allowed to harvest rice on the refuge, and where they can do it is limited. The shallow lakes on the refuge have been used by Native Americans for hundreds of years to harvest wild rice. That rice made up a major portion of their diet back before the white man was here.
Shortly after I left to do the loon count, a different kind of wildlife showed up at my RV site. This little Deere was here to do a job of work. That’s why I had to move the rig yesterday so it could move about freely.
Here’s the result. Tomorrow, the cement truck will come to pour our new patios. Then I can move the rig back on Thursday, and figure out where the heck I’m going to put the screen room.
Since I was out on the water today, I only took along my new little Canon PowerShot camera. I need the practice with it. All of tonight’s pics are using it.
THE END!! (and nope, Gina doesn’t read my blog 
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Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later, Judy
