The Seasons are Stalled!

Ten days ago, it seemed like spring had arrived. Temperatures soared, it was actually warm outside, and the snow started melting fast. The first wave of spring migrants arrived back, with robins, red-wing blackbirds, grackles, and a turkey vulture all suddenly showing up in the space of 3 days. Further south, we saw a flock of tundra swans in a field, resting and feeding on their way north (see 3 pix). Canada geese are showing up in pairs, sitting on still-frozen ponds, hoping for spring.


But then winter returned with a snowstorm that changed the world to white again, and the spring birds have gone back into hiding. And the weather is just staying cold, well below zero at night, and barely up to the freezing mark during the day, in spite of bright sunny skies. The snow is not melting, just slowly evaporating, straight into the air.


But some things do tolerate late winter weather. In the swamp, skunk cabbage have started to poke their lime-green sheeth of leaves above the snow, generating a small oven of warmth within their leaves that may be 20 degrees higher than the surrounding air, to protect this, the earliest of the spring flowers.


And we still see the deer. The other evening we looked out the window to see 6 of them grazing quietly on our lawn (where we had mixed in lots of clover with the grass seed), not 20 feet from the house. And the small flock of male red-wing blackbirds (the males return first; the females when it's warmer) was sitting in a tree this morning, looking like they were shivering in the cold.

North for March Break

Earlier this week we enjoyed a few wonderful last winter days at a cottage near Algonquin Park, where you need to snowshoe the last short distance from the road. Glorious sunny days, snowshoing in the woods, and skiing on the lake. Watched a few birds and a red squirrel visiting the feeder while we were there.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Blue Jay

Downy Woodpecker

Chickadee

Red Squirrel

Winter Comes; Winter Goes

It's March, and winter is coming and going as it pleases. Temperature rises, rain arrives and the snow melts; temperature falls, it snows again and the world turns back to white. It's wet snow, so it sticks to every twig and turns the woods into a fantasy. But when the rain arrives, the driveway turns to ice. And in between is a sunny day with heavy hoarfrost in the morning, as in these pictures.

Meanwhile, spring gets ever closer. The days are much longer, and the sun, higher in the sky, is warm when you're walking. I heard a report of merganzers on a local pond yesterday, and today is the traditional day when I always watched for the robins arriving back - though we've moved a little further north now, so I may have to wait a few days.


At least here the snow stays white and we don't suffer the ugly brown snowbanks, much and slush along the roads. The hope here is that snow will stay around long enough to allow skiing over March Break. With rain today and tomorrow it's going to be touch and go this year.



Unfortunately the good snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing seems to have ended for the year, though we may get a day or two more if we get a big snowstorm. You need to make good use of the real winter in January and February to get your share of beautiful days outdoors.

More Winter Shadows

Winter Shadows

It's a unique challenge to capture the beauty of winter in pictures. On cloudy days there are no shadows, and pictures tend to turn out dark and dull; on bright sunny days the light bouncing off the snow tricks the camera so getting the exposure right is almost impossible.


One thing I notice while tramping around the woods or fields on snowshoes are the winter shadows. Especially along the north side of a fencerow on an open field, the tree shadows, long bluish lines across the white snow, are amazing.


In the woods, if you can capture it effectively, the shadows are even more interesting. Shooting into the sun, but trying to hide the sun itself behind a tree provides a realistic view of what you're actually seeing in the real world.

A Glorious Early Spring Day

Well, I know it isn't quite spring when we wake up to 20 below temperatures, but the sun today was definitely moving toward spring, higher in the sky, brighter, and warmer than those cold January days. The season has turned a corner; it will be maple syrup season before you know it - the surest sign of early spring.


So I took a drive to explore the north-east corner of the Beaver Valley, toward the backside of the Blue Mountains, a rolling gentler landscape than the narrow upper valley. Here long rounded slopes fold in on each other forming the valleys of Mill Creek and Indian Brook. The Epping Sideroad in this photo is headed straight east; over the top of the farthest hills are the ski runs of Blue Mountain.


Partly, this is a country of apple orchards, hundreds of acres of them, the apple trees heavily pruned for ease of picking. This is a favourite area for growing apples because of the ameliorating effect of Georgian Bay and the long escarpment slopes on the local climate. Georgian Bay is cooler in the spring, and delays apple blossoming, thus reducing the risk of early spring frost damage, while the long slopes lead to cold air drainage, reducing the risk of cold night frost damage.


One brave owner has opened a small winery, and is even trying out grapes in on the slopes!


Driving east, you gradually rise up toward the back of the Blue Mountain slopes, a series of large but gentle hills in contrast to the steeper slopes lining the west side of the valley - here seen in the distance looking back to the west.


Finally you get to the back of Blue Mountain, on Swiss Meadows Drive, just behind the chairlifts unloading hundreds of snowboarding teenagers. Here you look east over the town of Collingwood, the old grain elevators on the far right hand side of this photo, the lighthouse on the left hand side. And in the distance, the far side of the bay, curving north toward Christian Island.

Winter in the Valley

The first view of the Beaver Valley seen by many visitors is the one you get driving north out of Eugenia and coming over the hill of the Niagara Escarpment on Co. Rd. 13. Stretching ahead of you, the road goes steadily down into the village of Kimberly, through the village, past the two ski clubs (out of sight on the left), and up the opposite hill, until it disappears beyond Epping - a 10 km view, increasingly a view of forest rather than farm fields.


The upper end of the valley is the narrow part, a classic U-shaped glacial valley, rimmed with the steep hills of the Escarpment, and vertical bedrock cliffs, especially on the east side. Among these, Old Baldy is the largest and most obvious cliff (centre of the picture), a popular viewpoint with a spectacular view!


Off to the left on the west slopes where the snow will last a little longer in the spring, the ski clubs pattern the hill with their many ski runs, bringing more traffic in the winter than during the summer. So far it's been a good year for skiing, but with 9 degrees and rain forecast later this week, who knows if there will still be skiing during March Break this year?


Beyond Kimberly the valley slowly starts to widen out until it opens to a gentler view as you pass Heathcote and drive toward Clarksburg and Thornbury and the many apple orchards. Here the abrupt cliffs of the Escarpment are left behind, and the valley is wide and rolling. The Beaver River wanders downstream through the wide valley to Georgian Bay at the Thornbury Harbour. It's joined by a number of tributaries, the largest of which is Mill Creek, and brings hundreds of fishermen to town later in the year.