Tag Archives: rivers

Commentary, nature, Photography

Nature Moves Quickly

17 Comments

Three weeks ago, the Little Bison River looked like this:

There are still snowmobile tracks!

And now:

Completely thawed and moving rapidly!

At the moment, we have 18 full hours of daylight, and as a result we are warming quickly (by comparison, Toronto, which is 19° further south, is getting 15 hours). By the solstice in June, we will have 20 hours of daylight with about 4 hours of twilight.

All the plants and animals have to take advantage of this intense period of light and warmth before it again becomes cold.

Happy Sunday and for Canadians, Happy long weekend!

Commentary, nature, Photography

Katlodochee (Hay) River

14 Comments

A week ago, this river, jammed with ice and swollen by a massive rain and snow storm, burst its banks. The muddy-looking chunks toward the left are actually the leftover pieces of some of the enormous ice pans that clogged the river.

The river is still unusually high, but no longer a threatening behemoth.

Happy Saturday.

nature, Photography

It’s not a Road

10 Comments

It’s a frozen river that until recently, was being used by snowmobilers, hence the tracks that you can see on the right.

It’s fair to say that given how much it’s used as a snowmobile thoroughfare, it really is a sort of road.

But not right now since the ice is softening very quickly in the warming, sunny daylight hours that are becoming longer every second.

We will have to wait until boats turn it into a thoroughfare once more for the summer.

nature, Photography

Bison River

6 Comments

I regularly drive past the Bison River and I always check on its state as I go by. Two weeks ago it was frozen almost completely solid but contained many ice heaves as a trickle of water, insulated by the thick ice, continued to run through underneath during the winter.

But a freely running channel has now opened up as our daylight hours continue to lengthen and the sun shines on the ice for longer periods. We now only have about seven hours of darkness, and these will shorten to about two hours of twilight as we near the solstice.

Happy Saturday!