Thursday, March 13, 2025

Farewell to Winter

 

In the harshest part of winter, winds off the Bay formed icicles sideways along the shore.


Snow Bunting

Snow Buntings still managed to forage now and then in the coastal moors.


Lichens, ice, and minerals decorated quarry walls under the opposing influences of sun and shade.

Song Sparrow

As the snow piled up meadow residents gleaned the slim remnants of last year's bounty.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Arboreal birds searched tree crevices for morsels of food.


Mild temperatures this week have started patterning the quarry surface after the monotonous whiteness of sheet ice.

Alternate thawing and freezing has created glassy crystals and reflecting shards.


The melting enriches the beauty of elements beyond what was and what will be.

Hooded Mergansers amid ice floes

Transitory Hooded Mergansers find the first open water at Halibut Point as a very brief stopover on their way to northern breeding grounds.

The Merganser pair yesterday

Early risers can enjoy this fleeting moment between winter and spring.


2 comments:

  1. This is a truly fine entry, Martin.

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  2. Those "glassy crystals and shards" look sort of like the trees and leaves trying to be seen in the water just below them. And sort of not--as if a modernist artist is depicting them in ice.

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