Category Archives: Photography

I can see clearly now…

Now that the snow has stopped, here are some clearer pictures of the latest ice encroachment.

Trees have had a tough time here since the weir was installed and raised water levels.

The Humber is narrow yet deep here and ice dams form regularly at this point and beyond. If you look at the right of the above image, it’s possible to see where water floods in occasionally and has carved a depression that will one day create an island here.

Ice covers the footpath – but wait, there’s more…

Ice stretching at least 100m from the river.

The ice continues from the footpath at least 100m from the river.

New ice begins to form.

We’re in for a few days of cold weather so the process is likely to start all over again.

D’oh! Missed it.

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Every year it’s the same old whine – “I wish I could be there when the ice breaks up on the river”. Well, I could have been there and I wasn’t. While I was home, the rest of the ice decided to move off without anyone to witness it. I took some shots today while a streamer from Lake Huron was busy dumping a surprising amount of snow onto the park.

Some comparisons are in order to show the changes:

January 29, 2013

January 31, 2013 the grass has been demolished by ice moving ashore.

January 29, 2013; track through the wild area. Houses once occupied land to the right of this photograph.

January 31, 2013; track is buried.

Until 1954 and the Hurricane Hazel disaster, more than a few homes were quite near this location by the Humber. I wonder how regular incursions of ice affected them and their properties. Residents at the time must have had some pretty close calls.This is a fairly average depth of ice to float ashore but the extent of it is quite surprising – further along, the ice actually covers the bike path.

Hard to tell but ice covers the bike path.

Hard to see where it is but ice now covers the bike path.

Thaw brings ice and fog.

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A mild night and as expected, the rising river broke up the ice and floated some of it ashore overnight. I have been waiting for years to see this event but it always seems to happen overnight for some reason. One spectacular thing about today from a photographer’s standpoint is the fog that formed as warm air hit the relatively cold ground and river. This came and went in a low-lying layer and changed quickly so that you could actually wait for the most photogenic formation.

Ice pushed ashore – not very thick compared to some years.

As this is a fairly brief thaw, much of the ice above the weir has remained in place and will create a large dam once the weather turns colder. Spring might bring the promise of a spectacular flood.

Ducks wait onshore for calmer waters.

Birds were very much in evidence today with starlings and robins foraging in the newly visible grass while ducks found open water a bit too rough.

Robins look for food as fog ebbs and flows over the cold water.

A small pool catches a reflection in the woods.

A light layer of mist adds an air of mystery to the woods.

Trees reflect in the saturated ground.

Back to winter tomorrow!

Foreground colour on a gloomy day

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In the spring, everything turns green, the weather becomes pleasant and the park gets crowded. Today is gloomy, slushy and mild with rain. In spite of that, I was blown away by the amount of colour still to be seen. Better still, I had the place to myself.

It’s probably an invasive species of grass but it does look nice by the river.

Because of the mild weather, a mist was hiding much of the horizon.

Looking south towards the weir.

I guess it’s an accentuation of the fainter and bluer shift that distance provides; no matter, it’s a great look, especially when the apartments at Eglinton are less prominent.

In the woods, colour meets texture.

Finally, the handiwork of the tree pruning company that spent long days in the park recently searching high and low for things to cut. The red of the cuts contrasts nicely with the green of the lichen. I had to check the images on the camera at the time and yes, the colours really were like that today!

Colour by Davey and nature.

Mugsey mugs for the camera.

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Today is a grey and misty day as the latest warm front has arrived dumping snow, freezing rain and now plain old rain. Mugsey decided he would scratch himself on a tree and he posed nicely for the camera.

Mugsey loves the snow – can you tell?

As we were passing by the bridge, a pair of young white-tailed deer moved silently past on the other side and cautiously crossed over the ice into Raymore Park. Even though the zoom on the RX100 is only 3.6, the sheer number of pixels (5472 x 3080) allows for some zooming at home – especially in this medium.

Sorry about the pole in the middle of the picture.

Apologies for the pole in the middle of the picture.

There is lots of feed above the shallow layer of snow to keep them going – we’ve had a pretty easy winter so far with rain and mild temperatures predicted for tomorrow and especially Wednesday (13°C).

A magical day and the MNR.

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Today was the calm before the storm and it was perfect with little wind and a bright warm sun.

Snow on log and lichen.

By the weir, a couple of fishermen were preparing to catch something – I’m sure they were too close to the weir and probably gaining an unfair advantage thanks to the ice enclosing the river at that point. Personally, I don’t see the attraction of eating fish that will have spent several years gathering Great Lakes pollutants from lower down in the food chain.

The unspeakable in search of the inedible (apologies to Oscar Wilde).

There is a hotline to call if wildlife regulations are being broken. I looked at the Ministry of Natural Resources site to attempt to find out if people can fish this close to the weir but navigating the site to find that information requires more tenacity than I possess.

Hello, Sault Sainte Marie!

A fellow dog walker tells me that on one occasion he phoned the line to report people who were helping themselves to large quantities of wood (after they had arrived in the park by leaving Scarlett Road by the Ukrainian War Memorial and driving about 1km along the bike path ). He was trying to describe the location to the MNR employee but she was totally unfamiliar with the area as she was in Sault Sainte Marie! My friend used his phone to photograph them and their truck and that seemed to deter them from further plunder.

One time I saw a well-heeled matron and her daughter carrying armfuls of tall grasses, bulrushes and wildflowers from the park up to their SUV. I challenged the lady and she indignantly retorted that she had the right to do this as it was a public place and she ‘paid taxes’! Great example for the daughter who was no doubt mortified by the mother’s actions. I haven’t seen them since so hopefully I shamed them into obtaining their next nature displays from legitimate sources.