Ice is nice

Now that it is unseasonably cold again, at least for a few days, this post may not seem so out of place.

Most people like ice, one way or another. Some like it in their drink of choice. Some like it to skate on. Or fish through. Or go ice-boating or snowmobiling on.

Some photographers find ice to be very photogenic.

Outdoor ice can be fickle if one's desire is to play a bit of pond hockey, especially in a 'winter' like we have just experienced.

Ice, just like its liquid state, is remarkable for a whole lot of reasons. One of the most remarkable aspects of water is that as it gets colder, it gets denser and heavier, and is heaviest at about 4C. I remembered this fact from my high school days, but was reminded in a very practical way one time a few years ago. One of my colleagues and I had chartered a fishing boat late in the season to get to one of the islands in the western basin of Lake Erie to do some field work. The captain wanted to know exactly how much travelling we needed to do, since because the water was much colder, and denser, than it was in the summer, it took more fuel to operate the boat and he didn't want to get stranded!

The colder the water, at least down to when it gets to 4C, the heavier it is, and the lower in the pond or lake it gets. Anyone who goes swimming knows that the water is always colder near the bottom, unless it has been quite wavy, mixing the water. When the water is calm, it settles into layers, with the warmest layer always at the top.

Once water gets to be a temperature lower than 4C, it gets lighter, returning to the surface and may eventually turn to ice. That is why ice cubes float in a glass, and a pond or a lake is covered with ice rather than freezing from the bottom up. If it froze from the bottom up, it could freeze solid, destroying all the life in the pond or lake. But with the ice on the top, sometimes covered by an insulating layer of snow, the ice and snow protect the water and life underneath from long term and perhaps bitter cold. Since the water at the bottom of the pond or lake is a bit warmer than at the surface, that is why ice fishermen sometimes see a Snapping Turtle crawling along on the bottom, or they catch a Mudpuppy (a type of salamander) nibbling away at the worm or minnow on their line. Both turtles and mudpuppies are cold-blooded, but apparently able to function in temperatures just a bit above freezing.

Just something to think about, next time you are enjoying the tinkling of ice cubes in your favourite beverage on a warm summer day!

The demise of river ice

It is interesting to see the stages that the river goes through as spring arrives. There has been sooo much ice everywhere for so long.

But finally where there is flowing water, the ice is disappearing. This first image shows the state of the Thames River at Chatham. With the exception of a bit of ice clinging to the edges, the water is completely open with a good flow.

Downstream a bit, at Prairie Siding, it looks a bit different. There is some open water, but the channel is clogged with various sized chunks of dirt-brown ice that has been broken off

Just a short distance farther along it is completely choked off with chunks of ice.

And a bit farther, it doesn't appear as if there is much change at all.....it looks like it did for most of the winter....relatively smooth solid ice.

In fact it was like this all the way to the mouth of the river and out into the lake. But if one looked closely in spots, there were a few very small open areas where one could see a fairly strong current flowing just beneath the ice. It is at this stage where the ice is the most dangerous. No one in their right mind would venture out onto the ice in the first 2-3 photos, but with the ice looking like this last photo, one might be tempted to get a last bit of ice-fishing in. And in fact at Lighthouse Cove, there were people out on the ice on the lake...they had even driven their ATVs out! But with the fast flowing current under the ice, it is deteriorating from underneath more quickly than from above, and one would be very foolhardy to go out under these conditions.

A small creek along the road going to the Jeannette's Creek boat launch had some open water, and under the tangle of branches on the far side were three male Hooded Mergansers, but too shy to show themselves completely.

At Erieau, it is the same story, but on a different scale. The ice on the lake and the bay is still fairly intact. However the water flows steadily through the channel in either direction, depending on the wind and wave action out in the lake. As a result the ice is totally gone in the channel, which allows for recently arrived waterfowl to use the sheltered conditions to rest, feed and court. There was a small variety of several species a day or two ago. Common Mergansers were by far the most numerous, with about 160 birds seen, along with much smaller numbers of others species.

Common Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Common Goldneye

Bufflehead

Lesser Scaup

Mallard

Typically at this time of year, there are thousands of Tundra Swans in the air or on the bay or in flooded fields in the area. I recall years ago, while sitting at my desk in the Visitor Centre with the windows closed, I could hear the din of swans. They were about three kilometres away out in the southern end of the marsh and bay, but the noise was memorable. I'm not sure whether that was in indication that my hearing was much better then, or the sound proofness of the Visitor Centre was that poor....regardless, it was an event to remember. I took the time to walk out the south beach to see what the racket was all about. There were at least 10,000 swans, and several thousand geese and ducks as well, totalling 16000-17000 birds. My field notes said the date was March 30, 1978, so maybe there is still time for some good numbers to appear.

This year has been somewhat different.....it seems every year is in its own way. We've had our share of precipitation in the form of snow over the winter, but in reality it has been quite dry lately. Therefore there are few flooded fields, and with the bay still frozen pretty solid, there are few swans using the area. This is also the case in the former Dover Township, northwest of Chatham. In some years, especially those years when the Thames River flooded its banks, there were many hundreds of hectares of flooded cornfields. The swans, geese and ducks numbered in the tens of thousands, and if one could access a road that wasn't closed due to the flooding, it was fabulous...probably the premiere place for waterfowl viewing that year, but at the expense of many local human residents being inundated by flood waters, unfortunately. This year you are hard pressed to find any standing water in the fields. And so there are very few swans in Chatham-Kent this year, at least so far.

I did find a few hundred swans a few days ago in Dover, which had attracted swans, geese and ducks, including these snow geese. There are three snows and two blues, towards the far side of the wet spot and on the left hand side of the photo.

My most recent trip by that place has shown that there is even less water now, and fewer ducks. But the occasional Killdeer and Turkey Vulture was in the area!

Happy spring everyone!