Saturday, March 12, 2022

Signs of Spring

Yesterday we went for a drive down through the valley, stopping at Lake Eugenia.  Along the way signs of spring became more and more obvious.  The big one though is the heat of the sun and the length of daylight, and (though I can't quite believe it), this weekend is daylight savings time here.  That's practically the unofficial start of spring!

All these pictures are terrible frankly.  Something about the camera settings was way off, and the colour balance just isn't right - but the signs of spring is what we're looking for, and this is the first one, the Bighead River is open after spending much of the winter frozen.

We headed south up the Niagara Escarpment finding all the roads bare and dry, another sign of spring.

We also found all the little creeks were open too.  The first one here is Rocklyn Creek fairly hear its headwaters, draining northwest into the Bighead River.

A little further on and we passed Wodehouse Creek, this one draining southeast through the famous Wodehouse Karst and emerging from five different springs along several miles of the escarpment cliffs.  In a few weeks this will be totally flooded and raging downstream!

And when we got to Lake Eugenia the former meandering channel of the Beaver River was plain to see in the now exposed lake bottom.  A sea of stumps preserved underwater most of the year, ever since the hydro dam was built in 1914.  Ontario Hydro partially drains this lake in the fall to make room for the expected spring runoff every year.

Looking the other direction from the causeway the former river winds through the lake bottom for now, but soon the water will rise and this will look more like a lake.

The lake is pretty well surrounded by cottages now, many converted to year-round homes.

The little scruffy island was still there, as was the old stump.  Tomorrow a visit with the geese.





16 comments:

  1. Just a bit more than a week until official Spring!! I could do without the time change though.
    The third and fourth pictures are my favourites.

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  2. There is still an awful lot of snow around. I'm glad to see that spring has not passed you by, though!

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  3. I'm looking forward to the bright long evenings but hate the first morning of the time change. That is so good that they drain the lake during winter.

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  4. Ahh, the hint of spring. It looks like a nice, enjoyable excursion.

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  5. Open water and geese! Spring is on the horizon!

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  6. Down here, some controversy on what is officially the first day of Autumn. Meteorological calendar says 1st March, astronomical says 21st March .Whichever, we are definitely in Autumn with cool mornings and cooler breezes. Those streams just emerging after their winter hidden from view, every photo is wonderful, as I don't see snow like that, or frozen river sides, and a clear road must be so welcome. More daylight hours, roll on, down here daylight saving ( what a misnomer , how can anyone save daylight hours) is still several weeks away.

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  7. It's melting here this afternoon, so I too have hopes that spring will arrive soon. Enjoy the signs of spring!

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  8. It would be a good day to see the welcome signs of spring.

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  9. So nice to be seeing these early signs of Spring and taking our first sips of nature's Spring tonic. Soon we will drink heartily of blue skies, sunny warm days, fields of green, and mellow song birds singing sweetly from the newly budding trees.

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  10. If you say you can see signs of spring amongst all that snow.....
    It's another two weeks till we change our clocks - how on earth do airlines adjust their schedules with all these changes occurring at different times?

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  11. I led a bird outing yesterday to Long Point and it was decidedly un-springlike! It was bitterly cold with fierce winds and on the way home we actually drove through whiteouts. The birding was great though!

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  12. Sitting at 32F here and in five days up to 65F. We have the craziest weather! What little snow we got yesterday is gone!

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  13. it's so exciting to begin to see those small signs of spring. since you still have some snow, i am going with "small signs" but it's nice you are excited. we got a dusting yesterday, about 5 flakes total. our weathermen do not have a clue, they called it a cyclone bomb, i called it a bomb, a total bomb!!

    i enjoyed your pictures and your excitement!!

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  14. Ah, spring -- but we had a day of snow and strong winds.

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