Spring Robins and Floods

The weather is discouraging, but that is March being March. The sun crosses the equator, and we have a few nice days. Then, the temperature drops again, and the winds come, and we even get more snow. It's always a letdown, but there are signs — signs apart from the disappearing snow pile, of which by the way, the small core still lingers.

Robins are a sure sign. Sue, for example, used her wonderful telephoto on her phone to capture this robin on our neighbourhood walk.

Then, we had coffee by the park adjacent to the boat launch. Just over two weeks ago, we couldn't see over the snowbank, but it is all gone. The yearly flooding of that low strip between the parking lot and the river has occurred. The river beyond that tree has risen to the same level as the land, and the resulting pond was full of geese and a few ducks.

I wanted to get a photo of all of the fowl in the pond, but had I stepped out of the car for a clear photo, they would have left. So, I did my best through the windshield and then cropped away the hood in the bottom third of the photo.

The river has overflowed the bank near the tree, and the geese search for food in the resultant pond.

Flooding occurs here every spring but sometimes even more so than this year. One year, as we sat in the car, a couple actually launched their canoe from the right right of the photo where the trees abut the edge of the park. They paddled from the pond onto the river and went on their excursion upriver.

Miracle of miracles, I found those pictures from April 2017. First, look at the extent of the pond from all of the flooding: so much more than this year. Then, I have the picture of the couple getting into the canoe, followed by one of the paddling away on the actual river.

While it all looks calm enough in these photos, the high water creates quite a torrent farther downstream. Maybe I will be able to capture capture some pictures, but it was so dull yesterday that I couldn't be bothered to lift my camera —- not even the little phone.