Winter Changes: A February Retrospective
February 2014
Note: I am writing
this in the middle of March 2014, while I am “between cameras”, as my old one
quit working and I have not found a new one yet. So, I am condensing all that has happened in
February into one entry, including some of the last photos I have. Hang on – this is a long one, but it spans a
much greater amount of time than usual.
I think this comparative study will be very enlightening, and we will see
where things go from here.
It has been a winter of many drastic weather changes, when
winter tossed about undecidedly from one extreme to another, and places in
between. This has even happened in a
month's time, including February, which moved from new snow to slush, from melt
to severe storms with hard rains, and back to hard freeze.
From day to day, what I would see when going to Cottonwood
Pond was a fairly unpredictable adventure.
Here is a comparative retrospective of Cottonwood Pond and
its environs throughout most of February, 2014.
The woods on February 17
From uphill at the edge of the woods, from a distance, I
could get a perspective on the whole condition of the pond and woods:
Thick snow had fallen on the morning of 2/4, and was still falling as I explored.
After a rain before the morning of 2/17, the snow was
sinking and becoming somewhat slushy.
A view from the East.
Most of the snow had melted by 2/19.
A view from the Southeast. No snow, all water, on 2/21, after a hard
rain.
Let's take a close look at the changing conditions:
On 2/4, there were deep tracks in the fresh
snow. A dusting of new snow lay inside
the tracks.
On 2/17, rain had pitted the slushy snow. The feet of
raccoons and other animals has pressed deeply and clearly into the wetness.
And on 2/21, raccoon prints were found only in mud,
of which there was plenty after snow melt and torrential rain.
Snow-topped logs were shining with ice on 2/17...
...but by 2/19, most of the woods floor was brown,
with several swaths of white on north-facing slopes where the snow had not
completely melted …
… and on 2/21, mud cracks had formed on the
completely brown floor near the creek and pond.
Despite snows and rains, the sky through the canopy
was bright blue on both 2/17 and 2/21.
Previous to this time, the sky had been overcast every day throughout
the winter.
Down to the creek:
The creek water was just peeking through holes in
puffy snow on 2/4.
After some rain on 2/17, there were still holes, but
the surrounding slushy snow was dappled with pits, and the edges of the holes
had a feathered appearance.
The “new” pond-like spot at the edge of the creek
On 2/21, all of the fast-running creek was visible,
surrounded by mud instead of snow.
February 4
February 17
February 19
The “new” pond-like spot, filling with some mud after
the hard rain
To the Pond:
On 2/4, lots of snow had piled up, and there were
tracks going across the snow-topped pond.
The pond was looking a little slushy on 2/18.
On 2/21, the scene was completely brown and
muddy. The pond had nothing on the
surface but reflection off of the water.
The Seep was easy to see, coming from the corner of the pond on the left
side.
Closer view of the Seep on 2/21
Was the great root ball starting to tip forward, or
was it my imagination? A knowledgeable friend had warned me about
getting too close, because a tree could suddenly snap up and back into
place. I would have to compare this with
earlier photos.
There was always evidence of much wildlife activity on and
around the pond:
Animals scrambling over a log at the side of the
pond, in the snow of 2/4 …
… as well as in the slushy snow of 2/18...
… and a hint of a trail – an animal traveling just
under the slushy surface.
Prints in the mud next to the pond were hard to see
on 2/21 among the mud-soaked leaves.
But, the tracks across the pond reflected the changing
conditions:
February 4
February 18
February 19
By 2/21, the pond was all water – no more tracks.
On that day, a water mark on a young Sugar Maple at
the edge of the pond told how high the water had gotten
overnight during the
storm.
Going back in time … ice on the pond on 2/18.
On 2/21, with no ice, I could see the stick in the
water that had made the rod shape in the ice the previous month (shown in a
previous blog), sitting near the new inlet, where water rushes into the pond
under a log. Mystery solved!
The new inlet on the south side of the pond was hard to see
on 2/4, when a deep, fluffy snow covered everything. But, but mid-month the snow had sunk and
revealed it.
A few days later, the storm and torrential rain had widened
the inlet and fed the pond much more.
Just the inlet, with a crawdad chimney nearby.
The section of pond just at the base of the root ball is an
interesting study in and of itself. This
is where frogs sheltered last summer. It
is also where mud tends to pile up after dirt drops from the rootlets. The conditions here have been altering this
mini-habitat.
While the pond was frozen, dirt dropped
onto the snowy surface on 2/4. This made
it much easier for me to see how much dirt tends to fall, eventually into the
pond.
By mid-month, when it had rained and the snow became
slushy, there was a melted area just
under the root ball base, muddy from fallen dirt. The melting had allowed me to see how much
mud had piled up. The amount of open
area was definitely decreasing.
Near this melted section, the surface changed from
rain-stippled slushy snow to a variety of beautiful patterns within thin crusts
of ice.
On 2/21, after the hard rains, there was more mud at
the north end. Besides dirt falling from
rootlets (probably at an increased rate from pounding rains), mud had been
pushed into the corner of Cottonwood Pond, after water had poured from “little
pond”, around the corner.
Here is a glance at “little pond” on the same
day. Water poured downhill into this low
spot near the Cottonwood trunk's base and filled the area beyond capacity. Water flowed out around the corner (around
the edge of the root ball) and into the north corner of Cottonwood Pond,
shoving in that mud.
Now let's watch “little pond” change through the month of
February:
On 2/4, a fresh, deep layer of snow makes “little
pond” invisible. The snow had happened
too recently for tracks to appear.
On the 18th, after some warming and some
rain, some sinking of snow revealed the outlines of “little pond”. Animals had been visiting nearby, but were
evidently not sure enough about the pond's condition to venture across.
Some ice-rimmed holes had appeared on the surface, no
doubt noticed by visiting wildlife.
By 2/21, the pond is all too obvious. The surrounding
area was saturated. Water had also
flowed from uphill, along the bottom of the slope, and under the trunk, so that
“little pond” had extended on both sides of the Cottonwood trunk. This was the
day I thought I had detected a tilt forward in the root ball. Was the trunk showing a greater angle from
the ground? Again, I would have to
compare to earlier photos.
Where water was rushing under the trunk toward
“little pond”.
This is the same view on 2/4, after the snow.
On 2/18, a little bit of snow melt was occurring
under the trunk ...
… and I found a “snow shadow” below the whole length
of the trunk.
Here is where the Cottonwood top had gotten stuck in
the two-trunk Red Oak when it fell, as seen on 2/21. Had this angle changed at all?
Here is how the top of the root ball looked on 2/4,
heavily laden with snow.
There was a little less snow clinging to it by 2/18,
and small dens were visible...
… and Elderberry leaf buds were sprouting! This was one of the earliest signs of spring
I found in the woods.
This month of extremes seems reflected in the various bands
of lightness and texture on Cottonwood Pond in mid-month transition. Since that time, now halfway into March, it
has experienced further varietal changes: hard freeze, a dusting of snow, a
little rain, melt, hard freeze again, rushing water and mud from more melt,
warm sun, freeze again, and on and on.
We are headed toward a full-blown Spring, and so much can
happen all at once. I am poised to
spring down to the pond as frequently as I can to see what is happening.
Soon, I will take the first water sample of 2014.
Soon, I will have another camera.
Soon, I will share more stories of Cottonwood Pond.
********************************************************
This is a good time to review the names of spots and other
things that I have coined throughout the past year's time as I have explored
and gotten to know the place more, and as new things have developed. The advent of each of these names can be
found in previous blog entries.
Cottonwood Pond
“little pond”
The Siltation Spot
The Bent Blue Beech
The Barkless Log
The Seep
The Resting Log
The Very Rotten Log
The Root Ball Top
The Root Ball Bottom
The New Inlet
The New Pond-Like Place at the Edge of the Creek (I need a
new name for that one!)
What new names will present themselves?
