Welcome Back!

Yes, it's been a while... over two months that I've been remiss in reporting the weather oddities of this winter.  Here's a brief overview.  December was actually quite snowy and wintry.  We never had a school-cancelling type of precipitation event, but we had several 6-inch snowfalls at regular intervals.  And then, over the holidays, it melted on a couple of 50 degree days... and it never came back!

January was a month of interesting records, some of them official.  We had the least amount of snow (that is to say, we had no snow).  It rained several times, so I can't say it was the driest January, just the least-snowy.  January also had a strong of days in the double digits long where we didn't see the sun at all.  I believe it was the cloudiest January... it seemed like it, at any rate.  (Except for women's march day -- that day was sunny and lovely and warm!) 

February has just been mild.  We've had some lovely sunny days, some warm days... this crazy winter has made regular winter days seem unbearably cold.  Every once in a while we have a day in the 20's, which would be a normal winter day in any other winter, and everyone (including me) carries on like it's the coming of the next ice age.  And then after a day or two, it's in the forties again.  OR the fifties, or the sixties.  Today it hit 63, and it's supposed to be in the sixties for the next 3 days.

What prompted me to get out my camera was open water.  The ice hasn't been safe for a while, but it's been covering most of the lake.  Yesterday it was well over 50% covered.  Today:  

Mostly open water!  I'm sure what's still left will be gone soon, what with the predicted warm weekend.  I'll be honest, the weather is disturbing, both in the short term and in the big picture, but you can't change the weather (in the short term, anyhow). So I'm going to try and focus on enjoying it rather than worrying about it!

Ice Off and Sensory Observations

Ice is officially off of the lake today.  To be fair, this may have happened yesterday.  There was ice remaining in the morning, but it was over 60 degrees yesterday AND it rained just after sundown, both of which could have contributed to quickly melting ice.  Either way, I didn't see the ice-free lake until this morning and I like the idea of a Leap Day Ice-Off.  How often will THAT happen?

So... here's that, in the grand scheme of things:

2016: 2/29

2015: 3/23

2014: 4/2

2013: 4/4

2012: 2/22

2011: 3/18

2010: 3/18

2009: 3/9

2008: 3/31

2007: 3/18

2006: 3/10

Not the earliest ice off ever... but darn close!  

I have been a naturalist of many senses this weekend.  Here are some of my observations for most.  I didn't taste anything, and I am not interested (right now) in a discussion about senses above and beyond the 5 we all learned in kindergarten. 

Sight: I saw a woolly bear crossing the trail on Saturday.  I didn't photograph it because 2 kids were looking at it and I didn't want to interrupt them.  Also I didn't want them to think I was nuts.  

Sound: I kept hearing killdeer this weekend.  Never saw one. 

Smell: It's skunky out.  I also know this due to sight, but the smell is more salient.  It's just sort of faintly permeating the air all around, despite what I'm about to mention for feel.

Feel: It's windy.  For the third day in a row.  Unseasonably warm, and extremely extremely windy.  

(Note: this blog entry vaguely reminds me of a nature observation organizer we use for our young students...)

February may be going out like a (wind-blown) lamb, but March is supposed to be coming in like the proverbial lion.  They're predicting dropping temperatures this evening and snowfall starting around 9 pm, with 4-6 inches accumulation.  If this happens, it will (I think) be our biggest snowfall since that 18-incher that happened before Thanksgiving.  In other words, winter of 2016 may be missing winter, and instead manifesting itself in fall and (almost) spring!  Weather is weird. But things are happening -- so happy observing!

Ice On

So winter finally came in earnest on Dec. 28, when we had a snow/sleet storm that required me to shovel the driveway four times in one day -- not necessarily because the snow was that deep, but because it was wet and heavy and if too much accumulated, it was nearly impossible to move it!  That snow is still here, so it's stayed seasonably cold for a whole week now.  

I spent part of that week in Colorado, and therefore missed the ice on date, but I'm putting it right around the new year.  When I was able to see things on 1/2, small ponds were totally frozen and larger lakes were pretty much frozen, with maybe a couple of small open spots which were all frozen over by the end of the weekend.  Now the question is, will it stay frozen through the end of the week when it's supposed to get near 40 again?  If so... next week is predicted to be positively arctic!

Ice Off

We woke up this last day of spring break (AKA winter break part II) to a thin layer of snow, and I wonder... could it possibly be the season's last?  The day is supposed to stay at or below freezing temperatures all day, too.  A fine end to spring break.

That said, I did indeed miss ice off, despite the low temps the last week.  Here's what I know.  It was on on 3/20.  It was off on 3/26.  I didn't see it in between.  Unless I get better data, I'll put this year's ice off date for Lake Leopold at 3/23/15.  That makes the data look like this:
2015: 3/23
2014: 4/2
2013: 4/4
2012: 2/22
2011: 3/18
2010: 3/18
2009: 3/9
2008: 3/31
2007: 3/18
2006: 3/10

50's over the weekend, maybe.  Or at least by Monday.  Time marches on.

Ice Off and More

The ice is off Lake Leopold this morning.  (Ice off date probably 4/2/14, not 4/3...)

Looking at the dates for the past 8 years, we're just about where we were at last year... but last year was late. Interesting... 

2006 -- Mar 10

2007 -- Mar 18

2008 -- Mar 31

2009 -- Mar 9

2010 -- Mar 18

2011 -- Mar 18

2012 -- Feb 22!

2013 -- April 4!

Also, the vernal witchhazel is finally starting to flower!  (I noticed it yesterday, 4/2.  It's behind schedule -- this typically happens in mid-March and in 2012 it happened in late February.)  The flowers are diminutive, but lovely and fragrant if you get up close...  The flowers are yellow-orange and have 4 petals that I think look like streamers/party decorations (for a very tiny party)... Happy Spring!

(Another notable... crocuses in our yard flowering this week -- we noticed on 3/31!  Snowdrops have been flowering for a while -- probably since the snow that was covering them melted!)

My Seasonal Update

I haven't been motivated to blog lately... but that doesn't mean I haven't been making notes about the appearance (or lack thereof) of spring... and sometimes composing poetic paragraphs in my head that never make it onto paper (keyboard).  Finally, however, I feel the need to have a record of data that I can look back on.  

Winter may have started weak this year, but it ended strong.  There was a weak in early March when the ground was covered with a foot of snow -- we had 2 largish late-winter snowfalls -- and everyone was walking around talking about how last year on this day it was 80 degrees.  None of that in 2013.  Spring is arriving reluctantly.  I can only hope that means when it comes, it will park itself firmly, not let winter creep back in!

Yesterday was ice off... the latest ice off in the past 7 years at least.  Here's the data I've kept, indicating that we're over a month past last year's date, weeks later than average... and indeed, it's the only April ice off date I've seen!

2006 -- Mar 10

2007 -- Mar 18

2008 -- Mar 31

2009 -- Mar 9

2010 -- Mar 18

2011 -- Mar 18

2012 -- Feb 22!

2013 -- April 4!

Meanwhile, plants are similarly slow compared to last year.  In 2012, spring ephemerals flowered in March -- we had violets and Pasqueflower, bloodroot and others... This year... not a lot.  Crocuses are in full bloom, daffodil and tulip leaves are out with frost-burned tips, but they're not that tall yet.  There's no green haze across the water as willows get that springy green... even the catkins have been slow to swell.  (Vernal witch hazel is in bloom, and silver maples have flowered... that's about it that I've noticed, plant-wise.)  Redwing black birds are about the only thing that kept to the normal spring schedule this year.

Yesterday, I saw a cluster of ants surrounding something on the sidewalk, and last weekend when we went for a walk, some gnatty things were flying around my head, so I guess the insect workld is starting to come back to life, too. 

OK, back to work!  

Morning Observations

This morning dawned beautifully...

A thin layer of ice covers the lake this morning, fractal spirals and triangular crystals covering the delicate surface.  The early morning light, almost horizontal, highlights the patterns.  It casts long shadows and pale pastel reflections of the aspen trees across the flat expanse.  Upside down, blurry and elongated, it's an impressionist version of reality painted upon a canvas of ice.  The colors almost glow -- a mirror image of the salmon of the rising sun and the blue of the clear sky, the white of the tree-trunks and the beige of the prairie.

With their swimming-grounds hardened, the lake's surface is free of ducks and geese, but there are smaller birds all around.  A flock of sparrows congregate in the button bush, taking refuge among its protective net of branches and twigs.  They chatter to each other, creating an almost-constant background of warbles and cheeps as I approach.  A few chickadees fly past, and some larger passerine birds, unidentifiable in the distance, perch in the highest branches of the aspens across the water.  There is plenty of life even in the still of the season of dormancy, death and sleep.

Frost crystals color the grass and the dried prairie plants white... although half-way through December, we've yet to see any actual snow.  The early morning air is crisp in my lungs... It almost burns with cold as I inhale deeply, but already I can feel the warmth of the sun's rays on my face and the promise of another unseasonably warm day.  We've already made a snow-drought record this year... I wonder when (if?) we'll get a snowcover...

Floral First

Vernal Witch Hazel Flowers Unfurl

Several notable events today... The first flower of 2012 is blooming -- the vernal witch hazels have started decorating for spring's party.  (I think their four petals look like streamers, thus make good party decor.)

We also noticed that crocuses have grown about an inch out of the ground... probably snowdrops, too, though I didn't check.

Finally, there is no ice at all on the lakes today... late last week, some kids in my neighborhood fell through the ice... meaning that it wasn't thick, but there was an ice cover.  Yesterday about half the water area was covered on most lakes, and today, nothing.  This is an early ice-off, as you can see if you look at the dates below.  (The kids were rescued, btw.)

2006 -- Mar 10

2007 -- Mar 18

2008 -- Mar 31

2009 -- Mar 9

2010 -- Mar 18

2011 -- Mar 18

2012 -- Feb 22!

Ice Off

Ice is completely off this morning... this happened sometime between early yesterday afternoon and early this morning, but I'm going to go ahead and call it for today. Why? Here's some historical perspective.

Ice Off dates:

2006 -- Mar 10

2007 -- Mar 18

2008 -- Mar 31

2009 -- Mar 9

2010 -- Mar 18

So if 2011 is also Mar 18, that's just pretty crazy random...50% of all my ice off data points are Mar 18!

I saw a muskrat swimming in the lake, too.

Also, I finally saw a heron, though I know they've been around...

Party On!

Nature is throwing a party to celebrate our warm weather... Migrating sandhill cranes sent out the invitations, their loud calls catching everyone's attention, alerting us that today is something special.

The witch hazel flowers were on the decorating committee -- their orange streamer petals are flying!

The alders? They are starting to put their green on. It is St. Patty's day, after all... the party needs to have some green, and the grass sure ain't wearing it yet!

Ice status: it's at about 40% coverage. Maybe even less. It's so windy that that the remaining ice is blowing up against the shore and cracking there, sheets upon sheets. Standing next to it, I hear the clink-clinking sound of ice knocking against other ice... like spring cocktail party in full swing!

(Did I take the metaphor too far?)

Red Flagged

The ice safety flag switched sometime between school yesterday and this morning. It's now red indicating not safe to walk on ice. I have to say, I kinda think that people who wanted to walk on the ice yesterday were already... well, on thin ice. (See picture from yesterday's post, from the same lake.)

Yellow Bellied

The lake has a yellow flag. I've never seen such a thing, and I'm not entirely sure how to interpret it. To fill you in, across the street from school, there is a flagpole. Underneath the American flag, they fly a colored flag that is meant to communicate the status of the ice vis a vis walking safely upon it. The system is simple... red flag = Stop! Danger, ice not thick enough to safely support you! Green flag = Go. For the past 7 years, those were the choices... and now, all of a sudden, yellow. Proceed with caution, if we continue with the obvious traffic signal parallel. So is that... Feel free to walk on it, but we won't be held responsible if you break through and sink into the frigid waters below, succumbing to the calm of cold as you wish you had exercised more caution at the "proceed with caution" color? Only certain parts of the lake are safe? (Which parts?) We were too lazy to go out and measure the thickness, so we're letting you guess? Things are changing so fast... what with the 55 degree day on New Year's Eve followed by a 22 degree day on New Year's day... that we don't even know what's going on with the ice from minute to minute? I don't know... yellow is my favorite color, most of the time, but this is not a place where I want to see yellow.

Personally, I will be staying off the ice unless the following conditions are met:

1. Green flag, for at least a few days.

2. Very cold weather, so there's no water on top of the ice.

Travelling on ice is not something I did as a kid. I mean, we skated. Quite a lot, when I was young. But we skated indoors, generally, and if not, on ice rinks that were not lakes the rest of the year, but fields flooded for that purpose.

The first time I went on a frozen lake, I was already 23, and we were learning to teach frozen lake ecology at Wolf Ridge, where I did a naturalist internship. We walked down to the lake and got to the edge and everyone else followed right on but I stopped at the edge, a statue paralyzed with fear. Yeah, I saw the truck out there. And the little "house" (if you will). But still. Lakes are not meant to be walked upon. I did go out, after a little coaxing, but for the entire (long, cold, Minnesota) winter, I had to swallow my fear when I taught that class, or had to snowshoe across the lake.

The very worst days were the relatively warm, sunny ones, when a layer of water would from on top of the ice. This was terribly disconcerting. The ice was 15 inches thick under the water, and crystal clear with integrity and strength... but no matter. Snowshoes would get clumps of ice frozen to them and if you slipped, you became uncomfortably wet, and... ugh. Or when there was cracking. The ice would sometimes creak and crack. Again, They assured me that 15 inches of ice would hold even with a crack (or 10, or 8 inches). The ice was floating and a crack wouldn't stop that, and the sheet covered the entire body of water so it's not like the two pieces of ice could split even if there was a crack all the way through, which there actually wasn't. But I didn't care. When the ice moans and groans, it's not because it's welcoming your weight.

All that is to say... I am not afraid to go on the ice (anymore) when I know it's safe. But I don't play around with maybes. Shiver. I don't even like imagining it...

It's On

Today, small lakes have frozen over, with a thin layer of ice...

More From Today.

OK... first thing's first. Today is ICE OFF day! This morning there was still a largish mass floating, but strong winds broke it up. There are some ice-cube sized chunks that have floated over to the edge, and were making a clinking sound as they were pushed together in the wavelets. It sounded like nature was throwing a cocktail party to celebrate spring! (You know, before it snows again.)

The sexually precocious American Hazels have begun to display their bright pink female flowers. (Many shrubs have none yet, but several have branches adorned with these almost impossibly small but beautifully colored flowers.) Alders are also girl-flowering (in addition to the male flowers noted earlier) now, but I didn't get a picture of them.

I have discovered, by the way, that if I carry a white index card with me, I can slip it behind small subjects and it makes it a lot easier to get the auto-focus to focus on the proper thing. I recognize that the sacrifice here is the artfulness of the photos, but sometimes, the goal is scientific documentation. Especially when I have 20+ kids waiting for me and not understanding why I am stopping to take a picture of something random like a bud when they are studying something totally different like birds, for example. So the boring backgrounds aren't necessarily my first choice, but they serve their function.

Many buds are swelling up and showing peeks of green between their scales. Not that many species, but enough that it's starting to be exciting out there...

shown above, Linden, serviceberry, and weeping willow (with catkins showing).

And more from the baby plant front, here are prairie smoke flower buds (left) and baby bergamots, in the shadow of Naomi (right).

Warming Up

Silver maple flowers are opening up, but they start at the top of the tree and work down, so I couldn't find one low enough to get a picture close-up.
This I thought was interesting. Ice is about 50% off right now, but this slab seems to have drifted away from the edge (rather than melting) because the corners are so perfect -- exactly the shape of the stone edge. Kind of cool.

I don't know what the official records showed, but I had a thermometer out today and it showed the temperature at 70 degrees in the shade... so St. Paddy's day was our first 70 degree day! (Snow predicted over the weekend, so...)

First Flowers

I know that a pussy willow isn't brightly colored, it has no showy petals... but a catkin is a flower and they're poking out and I'm saying it counts.

If you want brightly-colored petals, here's a lovely orange witch hazel flower. In the fall, I pictures yellow ones and claimed them as the last flowers of 2009. But this plant seems to have orange flowers that come after the snows rather than before. I'm not sure what's up. Both plants were planted as part of native plantings, not growing wildly, so... I'm guessing they're just different varieties, but I really don't know. Anyhow, that's two flowers today.

I was really hoping for the pink American Hazel flowers that I reported on March 19 last year, but I'm too early. (I also noticed that snowdrops were early in March last year, and I haven't even ventured to that part of the yard yet. An afternoon adventure!)In ice-world, there is still ice on the lakes, but it's clearing by the inlets where water moves. Today the flag was switched from green (safe for walking, which I'm not sure it was yesterday) to red (danger, Will Robinson, danger), so the it'll be soon!

One Warm Day...

... and things are popping up all over the place.
Daffodils in the yard, which may have even been there under the snow, became visible today.

Here is a baby columbine. The tiny buds on my Am. Hazel have started opening as well, but they are too tiny for me to photograph. Also, pick up a few of winter's decomposing leaves, and I found all sorts of squirmy life. Worms, centipedes, little roly polies, and some tiny white bugs are all active and plentiful under there...

Also heard, seen, or reported by a third party:

• killdeers, today.
• sandhill cranes, a few days ago, reported by fivecrows' father.
• a bat, reported by fivecrows,
  
• herons, seen by me today but earlier in the week by fivecrows,
  
• our porch raccoon is back to looking longingly (or with loathing, I'm not sure) into our window.
• cedar waxwings, also seen by fivecrows.
• it is very muddy!
  

Ice is still on the lakes, but there's a lot of melted water on top of it...

It's a Small World

Yesterday was a still, grey day at the beach, slate water blending almost invisibly into cloud-covered sky. These formations are what remains of winter's icy covering. Fragile though they may seem, they are solid sheets of ice, and, though they were dripping steadily in the 40 degree weather, no amount of kicking or jumping on would break these sand-infused ice overhangs. They looked like mini natural wonders of the world, places where centimeter-tall ancient cliff-dwellers could have made homes. There were caves where tiny spelunkers could study ice stalactites or mine for precious pebbles. It's funny to think that yesterday they probably looked totally different, and tomorrow they will look different still. And before too long they will be piles of sand and then waves will smooth them over and if we hadn't seen them, we'd never know they were there. It makes you feel lucky, sometimes, to be in the right place at the right time to see things that so many others completely miss. In all the years and all the days, of all the places, there could only have been this one moment when I could see this thing... But it also makes me wonder how many millions of cool things I was one day too late or too early to experience, or what was just around the bend that I didn't see. I suppose that's a depressing take on it, and I should go back to being lucky that I was in the right place at the right time, no?

A Certain Heaviness...

Friday into Saturday it snowed about 2 inches -- heavy, wet snow that was practically rain. My thermometer said it was 34 degrees, so it should have been rain! Anyhow, it was enough to cover the brown, roadside ugliness for a while (it's back already). The relative warmth -- two days of hovering right around freezing -- has caused some melting. Check out this icicle on the back of my house... its stalactite part and its stalagmite parts are almost ready to meet!

I just thought it was sort of cute how the snow was melting around this cat lawn statue... it looks like a kitty has made a snow cave and is peaking out!

Ice Storm

The morning is lovely and treacherous. Everything is coated in a layer of ice. Above, the umbrel flowerhead of a golden Alexander... it looks like little cups holding ice crystals aloft. Below, the complex little seeds of queen of the prairie droop under the weight of the ice.

I thought the barberry made a lovely Christmas image. (I know, it's a painfully thorny non-native... I guess that's OK. I don't celebrate Christmas, anyhow...)
Stem of compass plant.
Brown-eyed Susans.
It's not just natural things... my yard art is covered in ice as well (above) and the side of the house has tiny icicles from every board on the siding (below).
So. This should be an awesome day for driving, which is what we're supposed to be doing all day. Yippee!