River Otters at the Library

Here's an event at the Winchester Library. Give yourself a chance to "chill" after the holidays --

Knowledge at Noon on January 2 from 12-1, here at the Winchester Library, Licia Johnson will speak on the Incredible World of the River Otter. We may not always seen them, but we can see the signs they leave behind in winter! Join Licia as we dive into the incredible world of the river otter, exploring all their funny behaviors, signs and unique adaptations,. 

We hope you will join us. Dessert and coffee or water will be served. 

Water Level Gauge Removal

The water level gauge was removed today. As soon as Emily sends out the last graph, I'll post it on the site.

They were also able to compare the lake levels to sea level on all but one lake. When that information is reported I'll post that on the blog also. It should be interesting to see how we compare.

Bear Alert

Just wanted to let you know to keep and eye on your pets and children. There's a big bear roaming around East Birch Lake Rd. Our neighbors saw it at 6:30 this morning. The raspberries are really starting to pop out so it might have been after those.

AIS Survey

The DNR and the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission will be conducting AIS surveys on lakes this summer.

Fish Trap and Crab Lakes will be surveyed by the DNR staff.

The GLIFWC will be surveying a number of lakes in Vilas County -- including Birch. The other lakes in Vilas County are Annabelle, Big Crooked, Jag, Lake Laura, Mamie, Manitowish & No Mans Lake.

Winchester Picnic in the Park & Boat Parade

Mark July 6th and 7th on your calendar . . . Those are the dates of the Annual Winchester Boat Parade and Picnic.

The boat parade starts at 6 PM at the bridge and the Picnic in the Park is on Sunday, July 7, from 12 PM to 3 PM. There's always great food, fun and games.

Once again, the Friends of the Library are sponsoring the Cake Walk. Folks donate cakes, cupcakes and desserts and the kids play a "ring-around-the rosy" game to see who wins a treat. If you'd like to donate a treat to the game, please have it at the Park by noon.

Hope to see you there.

Lake Tides Newsletter & Lake Levels

Emily Heald, Water Program Coordinator at North Lakeland Discovery Center, sent an email out last week about and interesting article . . . 

"Katie Hein, the scientist who has been analyzing our lake level data, wrote an incredibly interesting article in the most recent publication of Lake Tides."

UWSP/UW Extension Lakes    You can find the newsletter at this site. You can also subscribe to the newsletter and receive it whenever it is published.

Emily is also our contact at the Discovery Center for the lake level monitoring. Here's a link to the Discovery Center that explains the procedure.

Discovery Center Citizen Lake Monitoring

Every spring they come out and install a gauge right off the shoreline. The gauge is calibrated so that readings from day to day and year to year can be compared.

This is a photo of the most current page in the monitoring booklet. On May 11 the zero point was calibrated at 305.3. You add the reading (65) to the zero point and the initial reading for 2019 was 370.3. If you add the 305.3 to the reading from today (56), you'll come up the actual level of 361.5.

At the end of each month, we submit a photo of the current month and we receive a chart (see below) that shows the lake levels for that month added on the past data.

This year Emily asked if there was one year for which she could do a graph showing the change in levels. I think 2014 is an interesting year. It started out at the highest level and, in five weeks, they had to come out and re-install the gauge in deeper water. They installed the gauge on 5/13/14 and the actual elevation was 395.7 (333.7 + 62 cm). On June 21 the actual elevation was 343.7 (333.7 + 10 cm).

As you can see from the graph, the water level kept falling throughout the summer and started climbing around August when the rain started coming again. The other interesting thing about 2014 is we had 4" of snow on October 31, a day before they took the gauge out.

The highest point since 2014 was last summer when all the docks started floating away.

There's another change this year that should be interesting. A few weeks ago they came out and did a reading that will enable them to compare our lake level to sea level and to lakes around the world. As soon as we get some information I'll post it on the blog.

Winchester Library and Town Events - June

I received an email from the Betty at the Winchester Library with a long list of events going on at the library and in town throughout the month of June. Thought I'd post it on the blog in case you're up here and need something to do.

 Summer Library Hours are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays 10-3; Thursday 9-6 and             Saturday 10-12. Copying and faxing are available during those times.

            

June 3 – Town Board meeting at 7 pm, Town Hall

June 4 – Lions Board meeting at 6, Library

June 6 – Jasmyn Schmidt addresses questions and answers about Composting and Recycling at 2, Library

            

June 8-Rainbow Lake Association meeting at 9, Library

            

June 9 – Legion Auxiliary meeting at 5, at Legion Post/Bingo

June 12-15- Our Annual Book Sale; $1.00 a bag on Saturday

June 17-Book Club – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, here

June 18 – Kid’s Programs start; Picnic, Worm Race and Litter Pick up From 11-12, Library

June 19 – Garden Maintenance begins at 9 in Memorial Garden, here

June 20- Free Lunch – a Cook Out at 11:30; then Susan Corrieri, Vilas County Elder Specialist, will speak on the ABC’s of Medicare and answer questions at noon, Library

June 21 – Basket Weaving 10-3, Dianne Mockler, Library

June 22-Hiawatha Lake Picnic and Meeting, 8:30, here

June 25-Container Gardening for Kids, 10:30; Jaime Martindale from UW-Madison on Visualizing History Through Aerial Photography  at 2, Library

June 27- Attorney Long from Sturgul and Long Law Office in Hurley addresses Elder and Trusts issues at 4.

June 28 – Basket Weaving with Dianne Mockler, 10-3, here

Lost Swim Raft

This raft floated up on Jay and Helyn's dock today (May 21). If this is your raft, you can contact them at the phone number in the Birch Lake directory or at jhwoolf (at) gmail.com.

2019 Field Trip Guide & Annual Meeting Information

Here's Bobbie's latest email with a link to field trips all around the state of Wisconsin.

The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin has shared its 2019 Field Trip Guide offering remarkable Field Trips for you and your family to enjoy throughout the state of Wisconsin. I have attached a few of the trips taking place in the Vilas County area you may be interested in attending. Check out the entire guide at: 

https://www.wisconservation.org/field-trips/guidebook/

If you enjoyed John Bates' presentation at our Annual Meeting a few years ago, he will be leading Field Trip #172 Old Growth Forest Hike in Iron County in August.

If you plan to renew your membership at the Annual Meeting on May 25th, please bring along a completed Membership form to turn in with your payment. This will guarantee your entry in this year's Association Directory. 

May 1st??????

Lake Level Monitoring

Spoke to Bobbie a couple days ago about the monitoring of the lake level. We started in 2010. Here's a link to the Discovery Center page that describes the program. After the level is installed this spring, I'll post the water level on the blog.

Lake Level Monitoring -- Discovery Center

Original Lake Level Monitoring information sheet -- This is an old link that shows the process of installing the gauge and reading the levels. I think you should be able to zoom in on the print and make it easier to read.

Ice Out 2019

All the ice went out last night, April 25, and here's a picture from this morning. You can see how high the water level is this year. I usually mow lawn down as far as the birch tree and light pole.

Birch Lake Association 2019 Annual Meeting

Here's the information for the annual meeting this spring . . .

Birch Lake Association

Annual Meeting

Saturday, May 25

Winchester Town Hall

Hwy W

8:30 AM

Sign in & Coffee

Meet & Greet

Renew Your Membership

9:00 AM

Guest Speaker -- Alan Schwoegler

30 Year Loon Ranger for Loon Watch

a Program of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute

Sharing his knowledge of loons their ecology and best practices for

living with loons on our lake.

Business meeting to follow.

If you google "Loon Watch", you can see their website and get some more information before the meeting.

Bobcat

I was listening to WPR yesterday and the wildlife guy was talking about bobcats. A couple weeks ago one walked through our backyard. It was pretty early in the day. By the time I got my camera ready, it was already in the woods and the pictures weren't very clear.

Ann Marie said she had a picture from their trail cam. So here's a picture from the 24th that she sent to me.