The variable water level has also caused other recent changes to the lake. At the time of lowest water level in the late 1970s, the lake's largest island, Spruce Island, was connected by dry land to the mainland, and a large gravel bar in the lake's north basin was exposed. Now, however, the land corridor to Spruce Island is resubmerged, and Spruce Island is once again an island. The once-exposed gravel bar has similarly been resubmerged, becoming a hazard to boating and unfortunately extirpating the colony of common terns and herring gulls that bred there. These two species are no longer commonly seen on the lake now that their breeding site has drowned, but the recent rise in water level is to the apparent benefit of the lake's common loon, red-necked grebe, and beaver populations. Ducks are also thriving in the stretches of now-flooded shoreline. And fish catches have improved markedly since the low water days of the late 1970s.