Making Tracks

Sometimes I forget that the Lake is observed by other living things besides humans and ducks, but here's proof:

And more proof.

Ice Islands

Visible Fluffiness!

Here's today's daily pic, which hints at the existence of more of the fluffy snow described in yesterday’s post.

Here's close-up #1.

And close-up #2. Seriously, these flakes were about an inch across and lighter than feathers. It was a brief, but glorious, feathery-dusting this morning.

Tundra

After an early morning dusting with impossibly fluffy snow, the shoreline has been extended! The thin ice is strong enough to support this cottony-soft snow, so it looks like we've got ourselves a solid pack of ice (I keep expecting a polar bear to pop up), but we don't really.

Check out this ledge--that's the impossibly fluffy snow. The whole pile probably weighs about an ounce. If I sneezed it would all disappear. It's snow like this that makes me wish I had another word for snow.

Duck, Duck, Ice

Ducks were milling about in the water and on the ice for most of the day, sometimes diving into that freezing water and bobbing back up.

But now, they're mostly gone, and we have a light layer of ice with a light layer of snow falling on it.

Arctic

There's a thin layer of ice on the Lake that opens and closes, shifts around at will. It's very calm, but COLD.

Tilt! Tilt!

The lake is pretty calm and therefore dull today, so I'm spicing it up a bit with a camera tilt...

Quilt Creep

A short while after I posted yesterday's "ice quilt" pics, I looked out the window and saw the ice squares just at the shore line. Yes, I understand there are waves/tides, even if the water is still, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the ice was creeping up on me, trying to look into the window and read what I was saying about it...

Of Ducks and Quilts

I missed posting yesterday (splitting headache) but took this photo early this morning to illustrate how completely calm and smooth the lake is. I thought that would be that, but....
Then I noticed this very large flock of ducks congregated on and around a patch of ice. Smaller groups have been here all day, but now they are hanging in one very large flock, some sitting on ice, with feathers fluffed against the cold, and some swimming. And then, most amazing of all...

The ice that has formed on the lake is breaking into neat trapezoid shapes. They aren't quite perfect squares or rectangles, but they are close. It reminds me of the way farm fields look from the air.

If anyone has any insight into why the ice is breaking into such neat pieces, do tell.

A New Day

Sorry for the long absence (more on that later). Here's this morning's pic, which I swear is not the same one I posted in December (it's sunnier) but it is remarkably similar. Lots of news and pics to relay, but not today. Enjoy the cool crisp dawning of the new day, year, and era...