Friday, April 9, 2010

Spring 2010



It's been a long and rough winter. The ice on Thompson Lake caused considerable damage to area utilities and instruments, not the least of which was loss of power to the UIS field station for about a month. The YSI sondes (instruments that collect water data in real time) were damaged by the ice - we spent part of yesterday getting 1 of 3 units running. I attach a photo taken by Deborah Berman to give you some idea of the conditions at that time.

Winter seems like ages ago now. Since, we have had some warm days. The pelicans have returned and we are trying to get back on the lakes to sample. Yesterday was quite windy and coupled with high water levels, induced shore erosion. We are running a little shorthanded for sampling and, in addition, I am in the process of replacing our part-time technician, Doyn (in foreground of picture), as she is moving on to work on USGS food web project taking place this summer.

1 comment:

Rancher said...

It has been warmer than ever this year. I'm wondering if that means that the migration is early. I live on the shore of Lake Michigan and all the birds are appearing early here.