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improvements to an island for a loon
Sunday, August 2 2026
location: 940 feet west of Woodworth Lake, Fulton County, NY
I awoke several times in the night feeling fucked up, but I think that was just the cannabis kicking in as I slept. By the time I got out of bed this morning, I wasn't feeling anywhere near as hungover as I expected. Pretty much the only discomfort was a mild headache. [REDACTED]
Later in the morning, I took Charlotte down to the lake, where we were the only signs of life. The bros, rednecks, kayakers, beavers, and loon were all gone. Part of the reason was that it was a cloudy, somewhat windy day. I pulled a beer out of my brand new nature-powered refrigerator, climbed on an innertube, and proceeded to drink it. It wasn't quite as cold as a beer from a real electric refrigerator, but it was cold enough. I'd brought some aluminized padding that I can stuff into the refrigerator's hatch before closing it to keep heat from entering through the otherwise uninsulated top. Interestingly, when I'd gone to get my beer, I found a green frog cold chillin' next to the entrance of the refrigerator. Perhaps he had even wriggled into it for a cold plunge.
On the innertube, allowed the wind to carry me to the biggest of the rocky islands at the entrance to the outflow bay and there I decided to do something I've thought of doing for over a year: making the island more suitable as a possible nesting site for loons. Loons like an island they can slide up out of the water onto, and this island has always had a jagged, rocky coastline comprised mostly of huge boulders. But two of those boulders sketched out a ramp that a loon might find inviting, if only someone filled in a trench between the boulders so as to make a single ramp. Initially I couldn't find anything loose beneath the water to fill that gap with, so I started using sticks that seemed to have been left there by beavers. Eventually I got a few small rock loose and piled them on the sticks. Then bigger rocks came loose. After I had the gap mostly filled, I evened it up with gravel that had lain under the rocks. There was no real sand, mud, or soil to work with, as currents must prevent that from settling near the islands.
Back at the cabin, I waged more of my anti-mugwort jihad, expanding it to large clumps of mugwort west of the cabin. At around 5:00pm, I loaded up the Bolt and headed back to Hurley via the Middleburgh route.
Back atop Hurley Mountain, Gretchen greeted me at the door, which seemed to indicate her leg was better. She as experiencing more mobility now, but any walking around led to greater pain later.
Tne green frog near the hillbilly refrigerator. Click to enlarge.
Royal fern near the cape in the west lakeshore. Click to enlarge.
Arrowwood viburnum near the cape in the west lakeshore. Click to enlarge.
Gravel filling the gap in the loon ramp on the rocky island. Click to enlarge.
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