Looking through my binoculars, I spotted a small flock of scaup and Goldeneyes between lumps in the massive ice shelf. Intrigued and yearning for pictures of White Winged Scoters and Long-Tailed Ducks that may be floating around beyond the sea of ice, I decided to take a journey across... Hell, there was a photographer taking pictures!
As I made my way across the Arctic like landscape, I followed the footprints laid out before me. Believe me, the ice was thick. More than halfway across, I looked behind me in the distance, the lighthouse....So strange seeing it from this angle off shore. Climbing up a steep embankment of ice, I slipped and fell hard. I sat there for a moment, checking myself and camera for damage. I was fine, my camera was fine. Just my ego was bruised.... I contemplated for a moment, deciding should I move forward or go back.Was risking an injury or busting my birding gear worth it? Eh, no.... I need to work. So I made my way back....
So just how much ice was there? At the time, I estimated about a hundred yards off shore, some open water and then more ice, as seen in the picture above... Everywhere I looked seemed to be encased in ice. The Pugh Marina and the Festival Lagoon were frozen solid. The Causeway was completely surrounded by ice. The area between Myers Park and Carre-Hagel Park was solid enough to support a coyote... Open water was few and far between.
Maps don't lie... I did a little research to find out exactly how much ice was out there, begging a question to was Lake Michigan frozen over? The answer was, no... Getting there it seems. Below is a NASA photo of the Great Lakes taken on February 19 2014. From what we see here (and according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory) Lake Superior is at 95.3% ice cover, Lake Huron is at 94.7%, Lake Erie is at 95.9% while Lake Michigan is at 80%. Lake Ontario is the least with 32%. Experts say Niagara Falls may have something to do with that. Records have not been broken, yet... In recent times, Lake Superior was been completely over once while Lake Erie got nailed three times. A couple of close calls with Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. With the warm spell we had last week, it is considerably less than that now. The upcoming Arctic blast that we are going to have this week could change things....
Personally, I think this is the harshest winter we have had in recent years. Think of how many sub zero days we have had. The buckling roads. Potholes. School closures. Birding sucks (minus the Snowy Owl invasion) The layers of clothes. Need I go on? I just want spring to get here.....
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10 comments:
Very neat pictures, drew! Thank you for sharing with us.
I had heard that the lake was frozen out as far as you could see. They cancelled the Polar Bear Plunge this year because of the dangerous icy conditions.
we need spring and Drew needs birds!
Wow. Fascinating Drew.
Looks like down here March is coming in through the artic. Here we go again.
Thanks Drew!
Be careful, drew! You know the ice is hard as cement. I'm glad you and the camera weren't hurt.
I've seen pictures of the lake frozen out to the Three Mile Reef. I believe the Racine Heritage Museum has some. People hiked out to the reef. It was in the late 19th or early 20th century.
This winter has definitely been worse than a few previous ones, but I seem to remember winter being like this when I was a kid. Maybe that's just a kid's perspective.
People are getting antsy. Three months of tough weather. We all want to be able to go outdoors without it being a major event.
Thanks, drew, for the pictures and prose.
I told the doctor today, "the weather really has not been conducive to cheerfulness"
I miss seeing Lake Michigan. Neat stuff Drew.
Yeah, I do need go to birding more... They are out there, just finding them has gotten a little harder. The weather doesn't help any.
I'd like to take a trip to Buena Vista Grasslands near Stevens Point sometime soon. There has been a rare Gryfalcon hanging around there, along with prairie chickens, Snowy Owls, Snow Buntings and shrikes. It's a journey...
The good news (and bad) is, with all the melting snow will provide flooded ponds perfect for migrating waterfowl.
Would somebody sell me some of Al Gore's carbon credits? That piece of poop is making it cold again :)
Al "Gore the public"
Frozen Lake Michigan endangers the lives of ducks
MILWAUKEE (WITI) — Our dreadful winter conditions are threatening the lives of ducks. The reason — there’s been so much ice on Lake Michigan.
Spring can't come soon enough.
Richard, I've heard about this! One of the big issues of the lack of open water is the LACK of it. Diving ducks (scaups, mergansers, Buffleheads, scoters,etc), swans and loons NEED a lot of open water to use like a runway to take flight. The dabblers (Mallards, Pintails and teals) don't, for they can take flight just simply by going straight up.
Another issue is, "mirages". Iced up roadways and fields can appear like open water to ducks in the air. This creates a crash landing situation for them. To add insult to injury, those whom survive need the open water to take off. Other words, they are sitting ducks and need to rescued!
I was down there the other day and there was a couple down there standing on the ground and they had two kids with them and they couldn't have been more then 4 foot tall and these kids where walking around on the top of these piles. If one of them slid down on the lake side, I would hate to think of what could happen.
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