SURF'S UP on LAKE ERIE

(click to enlarge)
Remember all those photos I posted over the winter months, of the flat frozen lake with a couple of ice mountains? Well, all that's changed now that spring has sprung. The heavy snow we received this winter, plus a few days of heavy rain over the weekend, and the lake level is pretty high. When the big winds come, we get lots of crash and splash against the breakwall. Trust me, you don't want to be standing there!

THE EQUINOX and THAW WATCH #2

The Vernal, or Spring, Equinox arrived in my time zone at 7:44 am EST (photo left). Of course, since blogging has expanded my world view, I realize that all four of the major annual divisions, Summer and Winter Solstices, Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes, mean the opposite to those in the southern hemisphere. The planet seems a lot bigger to me now, because through blogging, it's gotten so much smaller. I'm losing both my Northern and North American default perspective, and I couldn't be happier about it!


My Thaw Watch posts didn't have much of a run. The first one was on March 11th, and the chilly below-freezing nights kept things mostly unchanged. Then, as if right on cue for the local observance of northern spring, Lake Erie suddenly and overnight lost all it's ice landscape except for the shrunken remnants of the two biggest 'mountains.' (for more photos, see the previous post for Skywatch). Immediately, the waters teemed with mergansers, scaups, golden-eyes, buffleheads, and the odd grebe. Throw in the gulls and it's a raucus mad scrabble out there on the open blue. So far, there hasn't been enough wind to raise waves, and it's still too chilly over night to have the window open, but before long I'll be having to get used to the noise again. The lake comes up right to the armor rocks at the breakwall, so it's either a calm quiet or a loud slapping or even some crash-boom, not the gentle lapping of waves sidling up to a sandy shore. It usually takes me a few restless night to get used to the drama after months of winter silence.



Here's a view of the backyards facing Point Pelee, including a tiny bit of my patio, the low white building. The freeze-up came so quickly last year I didn't get a chance to empty those white hanging flower baskets, and they sat there all winter, conveniently out of sight under a big drift. (click for details)

SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Floating Sky (Lake Erie)

Yesterday afternoon, a slow-moving thunderstorm rolled through, and when the clouds lifted over Ohio, the light brought beautiful reflections to the calm water. The mountainous landscape of ice piled up by last December’s wind and waves is sinking as surely as Atlantis, if less dramatically than what Plato described. Before long the islands will disappear completely into the chilly water. The gulls have already returned. There’s enough water on top of the flat ice for them to swim, and when the rest of the ice departs, the mergansers and other deep-diving birds can make a living here.




EXTRA, EXTRA! A friend sent me these cool SKY PHOTOS she found on flickr; maybe some of you have seen them already. Quite inventive sky shots!


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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Sun, Ice, Water, Fog (Lake Erie)

The day had been dull and fog-obscured from morning until late afternoon, when the sun broke through behind the veil of gray, silhouetted the ice peaks out on the lake, and turned everything the color of a Jovian storm. To further the metaphor, rivulets and pools of bright water along the top of the ice looked ancient as the surface of a Galilean moon.
(click to enlarge for details)





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LAKE ERIE THAW WATCH #1

Welcome to the first edition of Lake Erie Thaw Watch (kind of cross between Watery Wednesday and Skywatch Friday), which I'll be updating 'whenever' over the next while. Sooner or later, the icebound lake will open, and I’ll be there with my camera to catch all the action. Well, okay, so it won’t be edge-of-your-seat thrilling action. Plus it may happen at night. It could take a few days, or weeks, or even hours. You never can tell. But I promise you, my friends, when I know about it, you’ll know about it!

This morning it’s clear and bright and very very windy. The local weather report says there’s a wind warning for the whole Windsor, Ontario tri-county area. They gave the wind speed as 59km / 37m, with gusts to 70 km. I’d just bet those numbers are higher out here on the shore (note to self – see about getting an inexpensive but reliable wind gauge). Without the wind, the temperature would be a couple of degrees above freezing, but the wind chill factor has knocked that down to about -6C / 21F.

The first thing I noticed as I looked out on my lake view was the increased amount of open water. The ice close to shore still holds, and with it the ridge of “ice mountains” that I’ve been photographing much of the winter, but in the open lake behind them, those white flecks aren’t baby bergs – no, those are white caps raised by the wind. If they were able to make it all the way to shore, there’d be some major splash-over into my yard. I apologize if the pictures are a little off, it’s hard to stand against the wind and keep steady! (click to enlarge)

INFINITE WORLDS

It's been raining off and on all morning. I had some errands to run, so I pocketed my camera and headed out in the van, accompanied by one of my favorite rainy day CDs - "Glacier Journey" by Christine (Quiet Paths) and Matthew. It's beautiful music to play in any weather, but on misty days with fog enveloping your senses, it's the perfect finishing touch. The road into town passes by canals and a small private marina, some drainage ditches, all full-to-bursting after a few heavy rains and the melting snow.


I stopped several places along the way just to watch the drops splash down, the circles spread, and the reflections of trees dance in a harmless wind. All the bushes were hung with fat raindrops that shone, despite the dull light, like tiny universes all their own. When I arrived back home, I noticed the one remaining drift in my yard - the one that was so huge when it was new that you could have hidden a mid-sized car under it with room to spare - had shrunk to reveal part of a tunnel, a runway, used by some mouse or vole to travel in relative warmth and safety while during the coldest days.

We had a hearty snow storm last April, so perhaps all of us will need to make our way through yet more drifts before summer comes to stay, but today, this was a day of peering into infinite worlds not seen when the road is dry, the canals are low, and the voles go about their business in tunnels underground.

SKYWATCH - FAREWELL to the SUNS OF WINTER (Lake Erie)

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that we have seen the last of the really frigid days. A friend told me yesterday that warmer temps, maybe even into the 50sF, or double digits Celsius, are coming our way soon. Already big cracks are appearing in the ice along the shore, and ribbons of open water appear during the day, even if the still freeze over at night. So here is my tribute to the beautiful sunsets of winter over the frozen lake.











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THE LAST DAY of FEBRUARY BRINGS OPEN WATER

Wind and warmer temperatures have done their work, and out beyond the ice closest to shore is - open water - that slim dark strip at the far side of the ice! As you can see, there are still some big piles of ice pushed up by wind and waves, but unless it gets really cold again, they will continue on their to back to liquid. Out on the very edge, two swans were drifting along, but they were out of my camera range. You can see in the bottom photo how the ice at the foot of my breakwall is quite cracked. I hope the little red fox who has been patrolling the ice mountains regularly has good instincts not to venture out and get stranded!




An additional note. Yesterday, our blog friend WREN put up a really cool photo of puffins. They are such comical-looking little birds, I was reminded of some of the classic amusing limericks that have been written about birds (the BUSTARD, the PELICAN, and the HEN (written for Henry Ward Beecher by Oliver Wendell Holmes, with an excellent pun in the last line!) so I emailed our other blog friend and poet, KAT, and said, Hey, what do you think? Well, she got all inspired, and created a delightful limerick tribute to puffins, destined to be a classic, too. I hope you can stop by Kat's blog for a read, and check out Wren's charming photo, too!