Creeks are Opening Up

When we get warm weather at this time of year all the streams start opening up.  What was an expanse of white becomes broken with the dark channels of streams draining all that meltwater.  It's barely started, but it's rapidly becoming obvious in this early spring week!

The springs that feed Wodehouse Creek are just at the back of this picture, between us and that barn.

It flows under the road and east into a large marsh.  The enormous flow of spring water helps keep the stream open almost year round.

At the end of the marsh, it flows through a large beaver pond that I've described before.  The pond is still frozen (in the background), but the stream below is now partly open.

I've taken pictures of this view over many seasons, and I'll be back to show you how the water rises over the next few weeks.

The creek flows through a long forested section that's a difficult walk to get into, through the former mill pond and Wodehouse, and out here into a pasture.  In a few weeks the water level here will be considerably higher.

The views I check most, to see if the water level is rising, are these two.  And because I photographed them only 4 days ago, I've got comparison pictures.

This was a snowy day 4 days ago, before our current warm spell.

And across the road is where the ephemeral spring lake forms when the water level gets really high and can't all drain down the sinkholes of the karst.  More than once we've put canoes in here and paddled the flooded lake that results.

Good comparison, don't you think?  Lucked out on lining those two pairs of shots up almost identically.  And I'll be getting more shots here as the water rises.  Because the snow will stay a long time yet, and the leaves won't be out until mid-May, the opening of streams like this is one of the main visible features of spring taking over the landscape in the valley.

 Time to get back to a few of those memes I favour too.

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