A raft turned nature reserve
One of the most interesting spots at our cottage is the raft. Over the years it evolved from a recreational platform into a floating habitat, but this summer it got retired.
My brothers and I bought it for my parents' 30th anniversary. That was 22 years ago. They had recently bought the cottage and I was still a teenager. It was constructed of cedar with large styrofoam floats underneath, anchored in 3 metres of water with concrete blocks. We used to haul it onto shore every fall, but eventually discovered we could skip the extra labour. Lake Fletcher is relatively small and land-locked, so the ice doesn't move very much or cause much disruption during spring breakup.
In those days, the raft was a magnet for young people, including me, visiting cousins, and others from neighbouring cottages. We would converge there for shrill games of king-of-the-castle, or too see how far we could rock it. In quieter moments, when other children were not around, I liked to canoe there alone with a lawn chair and sit writing. Nothing could be more peaceful.
As my generation of youth became adults, the raft was used less often. The next stage in its progression as a habitat involved the family of common mergansers that occupied our bay every summer. The raft offered a safe place for mother to lead her ducklings, often 10 or 12 of them, to roost for the night.
According to American Wildlife & Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits, the merganser's diet consists entirely of fish, but there is little doubt their guano contained the seeds of water plants because these lodged in the styrofoam between the cedar planks, and started to sprout. For the first couple of years we rooted out all the small plants.
But one summer the raft got neglected for an entire season. We started to like the look of a sweet gale bush that grew up on one side, and thus began the progression of plant species. The predominant species were sedges, mosses, water mint, blue flag and sundew, a carnivorous plant which traps its prey on sticky hairs, slowly dissolves them and absorbs them into its leaves. A couple alder bushes have also taken root. Red maples spring up every year, but they never succeed in getting established.
One summer we arrived at the cottage to discover that a pair of common loons had built a nest and laid two eggs on the raft. It was one of the least relaxing seasons we ever had. Every time we went swimming we worried about disrupting the family, but they got used to us. The eggs hatched, and we were treated to the miracle of watching the babies tended and defended a mere 15 metres from the end of our dock. As far as we knew, the pair raised that brood successfully.
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