The Rest of Winter

January 18

February 26

The Rest of Winter

January 18 to February 26, 2016

After January 10 and the First Snow, winter time carried on at Cottonwood Pond with varying degrees of water, ice, snowfall, cold, and mild weather.  Consistently things were still mainly hues of brown and gray. There was not yet much sign of spring, other than green moss and the earliest wildflower, Harbinger-of-Spring. Between January 10^th and 18^th, mild weather had melted all of the First Snow.

The following is a look at how things evolved from mid-January to late February.

January 18

It was a cold, gray day. Ice had formed on the pond during a wind. The pushing of air on water was illustrated by lines of frozen ripples along the back of the pond. More dirt than usual had fallen from the Root Ball above to the ice below.

January 20

On this sunny day we had a fresh coating of snow. In fact, it was such a thick, fluffy layer, fallen on top of frozen ground and ice, that borders were almost indistinguishable.

I could not tell where the edge of the pond would be …

...nor the contours of the Seep and Isthmus.

 Newly-fallen Tulip Tree seeds on top of fresh, sparkly snow at Cottonwood Pond

January 23

  

There was still snow on the ground three days later. It was a sunny day with a brilliantly blue, clear sky.

Borders were still hard to distinguish. It was even hard to see where the Creek meandered through the bottom of the woods. 

There were plenty of animal tracks in the snow.

Of course, some were made by my feline traveling companion, Silas.

But, others were obviously left by wildlife:

 Bird wing prints on the side of the Trunk  ...

... and animal tracks going all the way up the fallen Cottonwood Trunk 

Bird feet tracks at the Inlet

A canine track?

Some tracks went right across the pond to the Root Ball …

... where a great deal of fine soil had fallen onto the snow from the Root Ball Bottom at the main pond ...

… and even from the Root Ball Top onto “little pond”, where I very seldom see this happen.

             Bark fallen off of the Trunk

There were ripple patterns in the ice, next to the Cove ...

... showing me that water had been moving from the main pond through the Cove. I had wondered before which direction it tends to move. Dirt had recently fallen on this, too.

There were also icy ripple patterns in the Inlet. 

How much longer would there be snow at Cottonwood Pond?

"little pond" to the left of the Root Ball

January 29

Well, no more snow was left at Cottonwood Pond six days later.

There was only a layer of mushy ice on the pond. 

Let's head into February and see what happened.

February 4

It was a sunny day with no snow, but plenty of mud.

The air was still, the pond surface smooth, and the water crystal clear.

There was a “bridge” of mud between the main pond and the Cove. 

For some reason, Silas had a difficult time traversing this. 

He was very hesitant, gingerly testing each step. 

He seemed very wary of crossing here, backing up and moving forward repeatedly. 

Was it the narrowness of the mud strip, or did the opening of the Cove give him pause?

Eventually, he made it across as I went exploring. 

Where water flowed into the pond through the Inlet

The water had receded, as evidenced by the shoreline mud and the water line on the Young Ash.

Water had also cut a path through the leaves from the Temporary Creek, under the Cottonwood Trunk and to the muddy area adjacent to “little pond.” 

 “little pond”

 Two Seep paths to the Bark Ledge and the Creek

Bonus Photos for February 4: Plants, Fungi, Animals, etc.

 Plants starting to grow on Mud Pile #1

 Elderberry leaves

 Dramatic fungi on the Cottonwood Trunk

 Fungi developing on a twig

Raccoon prints in the mud next to the Creek

Animal scat – possibly Raccoon

The setting sun through the Two-Trunk White Ash next to Cottonwood Pond

February 26

It was early evening. The sky was clear, brilliant blue again. 

There were spots of some residual snow in the woods, mostly on the Creek.

The whole Root Ball Bottom of the Cottonwood seemed dry, but the Mud Piles were mostly wet.

The Seep was still damp, too. 

I traversed the Very Rotten Log over the Creek to get to Cottonwood Pond. Water squished up from it with every step of my boot.  

The pond water had some cloudy ice below the surface …

… and it was full of ice bubbles ...

...  some like constellations.

Ice at the edge of the pond

The Cove

The other side of the Cove

There were still burrows in the Root Ball Bottom, and I still hadn’t found out what made them.

Crawdads had constructed new chimneys that had since been frozen, eroded and melted.

New leaves were appearing on the Elderberry saplings … 

… and the fungi were revived along the fallen Cottonwood Trunk. 

It was almost the end of February. Would March bring Spring soon? 

How soon would ice melt, then the water yield frogs, water insects, snails and more?

How soon would this place transform from grays and browns to a cover of green?