One of first flowers in the Boreal Forest

Here is one of the first blooms you can usually find among the lichen and mosses, Trailing Arbutus small but very aromatic.

Rednecked Grebe

I was down raking the sawdust up from the woodpile that is finally finished.  Mary Bullock came up and said there was a couple of large Grebes in front of their house in the water.  I got the camera and got some pics of 2 Rednecked Grebes.  Not very common around here.  Glad to get the pics.

click for the whole pic

The osprey's are back

This will be the third year in a row that the ospreys have used this nest.  Nice to see them back. Apparently most fly all the way to South America.
  
This flyway narrows to the tip of Florida, then continues to Cuba and Hispaniola. Some osprey remain in the Caribbean, but most make a beeline across 500 miles of open water to Venezuela before fanning out further south into the Amazon Basin and the Pantanal, the world's largest freshwater wetland. They always stay where there is lots of water, makes sense if your a fish eater. 

click for bigger view

The end to a beautiful day

Weather perfect today, hard to do any work.

click for larger image

Dangerous waters

The flows on all the rivers right now is very dangerous.  This is a video taken at the Edith Lake landing showing only half of the flow the rest flows on the other side of the island.  This is real time speed, I don't think I have seen it this fast since living here.

First ATV ride of the year

Since I have finished splitting and stacking 6 bush cords of wood I was anxious to get out for a ride. Went up the Everett Lake Rd as far as Babs Lake saw lots of  grouse more than usual.  Roads were in good shape some wet spots but what hasn't been wet this year. Took a pic of the water rushing down Miller Creek.

On the way back ventured up tower hill and took a pic of some of the town from the lookout.

click on pics  for larger view

The sound of waves

Finally the sound of waves and the blue water.  It's been a long winter.  Snow is probably gone today with all the rain, but tonight it may drop to 0C.  Here is a small video to see how nice it is.

Ice has made a big move at the north end of the lake

By late this afternoon Outlook bay was open all the way to point.  That's when I stopped splitting and stacking and got the fishing rod out.  Didn't take to long to haul in a nice Whitefish.  Fresh baked whitefish can't go wrong.

Hedlund Marsh

 Most of the small marshes are free of ice now along with the Wapus River and the bottom end of Duncan Lake.  Not a lot of snow in the bush and the side roads are starting to dry up.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm, that will help.  The rest of the week on and off showers.  It will be close to have the bigger lakes ice free before fishing next week.
 Here is a pic of Hedlund Marsh and a pair of Ring-necked ducks.

click for larger pic

.

Back from down south

 Down to Sudbury area and it would be hard to find any snow or ice at all.  Driving back up Highway 11 bits of snow remain in the bush around Marten River but most of the ice is gone right up to Temagami where there are open and some ice (black) around.
 This picture of the lake sums up what Gowganda Lake looked like yesterday.

click for larger pic

Back to Duncan Lake more ducks

Back to Duncan Lake to see if any more ducks were moving.  The water is starting to rise in Duncan Lake, if it's not from logs being put into the dam it's from the heavy run off.  Wapus is all open as much as I can see.
Here are some more duck pics the first a pair of Lesser Scaup and the other a pair of Mallards.  Another pic from Hedlund marsh a Great Blue Heron.

Gowganda Lake Dam

 The spring run off is going well on the river, several logs are out of the dam and water levels haven't gone up with the melt or all the rain the last couple of days.  The weather has helped too with cool nites and days not to warm which slows the flow.  Here is a pic below the dam taken today.  You can see all the logs on the top of the dam they have taken out.  Click for bigger pic.

Wapus Creek Video from today

Back to Duncan Lake

 Water has opened up a bit more at Duncan Lake and a few more ducks around.  The first 2 ducks are Common Goldeneye a male and a female, the third is a male Hooded Merganser.
 Took the ice auger to test the thickness of the ice on Gowganda Lake 58cm or 23 inches. Top was a bit softer than the bottom.

Breeze Creek

Just west of Duncan Lake on the highway Breeze Creek staring to open up.

Click for larger view.

Duncan Lake-Northern Lites and Lyrids Meteor Shower

Out to find both and ended up coming home a bit after midnight.  I took a lot of pics but couldn't find any meteors or Northern Lights  Here is one looking down Duncan Lake of the Milky Way. Click on pic for larger view.

Just west of Firth Lake

A shot along the road looking east at the bottom end of Firth Lake.  You can see the Tamarack and the Red osier Dogwood is starting to change colour.  Something spring like may be happening.  Cleared more snow this morning and getting well below zero C tonight.  The road has a few spring bumps in it.

East of Gowganda

The melt is starting all over.

A couple more from yesterday at Firth Lake

Down to Firth Lake today

My neighbor mentioned to me that the Robitaille's were at their cottage fishing at Firth Lake and when they cleaned their fish up to 4 Bald Eagles had been feasting on the remains left on the ice.  Today I went down and stayed for awhile and never seen them.  They had just come back from fishing and were going to put out the remains later.   I headed down to Duncan Lake and an hour later back to Firth, no eagles.  Waiting in the cottage for awhile the crows came in and finally one Eagle came in on the ice and landed a way from the bait, it was hesitant on the ice and never did eat any.  I got a few good pics and this is the best one.  Make sure to click on the pic for larger view..

Whole lot of melting goin on here

Temps up today and every thing melting.  Lost a lot of snow today when the sun was out tonight it's only going down to 1C so it should melt tomorrow and then Tues night down to -11C.
 Wapus Ck has opened up around the bridge at the highway here's some pics.

 Some ice on the rocks down by Duncan Lake

Star watching earlier this week

Out taking some star photos last week on one of the warmer nights.  About 10:30pm a group of stars north of Orion called the Pleiades(the cluster between the trees)  in the western skies.  These are sometimes called the 7 Sisters.  With binoculars there are many faint stars with a small telescope you would see more than 100.   click on pic for better view

Something starting to happen

The last 2 or 3 days the snow has started to melt a bit.  Yesterday I headed for the dump and on the way back checked where Miller Creek crosses the road just south of Miller Lake sure enough it has melted through the snow and running.  Last week I checked and there was no water.

When I came back I headed down towards the Montreal River at the bridge and it is starting to open up too but not to much water coming thru.

Today we are waiting for a major snow storm heading are way,  the freezing rain started about an hour ago chances of 15 to 20 cm. of snow by tomorrow.

Long time no post

Finally getting close to finishing the renovations on the kitchen/dining room.  A bit more painting and a bit more drywall will put it finished for this year, the new flooring will wait till next year.
 Had to get out of the house this afternoon and just at the same time it started snowing.  Drove down the highway to the Spear Lake Rd. its all plowed out for a cut somewhere down the road. Maybe go back on the weekend when there are no trucks on the road.  Took a couple of pics along the way too.

Working on kitchen

How to grout a backsplash in 39 seconds.

Sundown tonite

click for larger pic

High winds and blowing snow

 The last few days have been windy with whiteouts. You can hear the wind coming and the house shutters with it's force.  It's going to get colder again for a few days too.
   Good thing I have been working inside on the kitchen, dining room for a while.  All the tiles are done except for the grout, the drywall almost finished and most of the drywall is primed. It's finally all coming together.  Here is a recent pic of the river looking north from the bridge.

Video of the river yesterday

Another from yesterday

Snowshoeing along the river

The weather finally is mellowing around -7°C today sunny and no wind.  Finally got out on the snowshoes and walked in from the road, south along the east side of the river. A good meter of snow in the bush sinking down about 30cm under the tree cover but in the open there was a soft crust that made it a bit better.  Here is a pic of river with pillows of snow on the rocks.

click for bigger pic

More snow pics

West of Gowganda

(click to see larger pic)

Dark Sundown

Just happened to look at the stats today

Today I was looking at the stats of Gowganda Views, this gives the number of people and what country they hail from, as of today more than 90,000 views by readers that have dropped in for a look since the start of the blog in 2008.  Thank you for all your participation.
 This year, the cold has kept the amount of new blogs down but I have some plans when it warms up a bit and the wind finally slows down.  Today it has been very windy, snow blowing all over, even walking down for the mail with the wind was not too comfortable.  Here's a pic of the homestead today.

Tonite's sunset

Pics from today Outlook Pt

Just a couple of pics from Outlook Point

Waiting for the northern lites last week

Last Thursday and Friday were to be good nites to observe the Northern Lites,  it  fell a little short as the suns blast was not quite straight on to the earth where we are.  I was out and in Thursday waiting but no sign of the lites.  Here is a token picture taken out the back yard about 11:30pm, temperature was cold and skies partly cloudy.  After that I packed it in.  Apparently they did see some around 3:00 am.  Friday nite turned out to be cloudy.

A bit warmer today, by Saturday possible +5° C

Heading into a warming trend the next few days. Out for a couple of pics along the highway.

Cold and more snow

Another couple of dumps of snow the last couple of days, yesterday just too cold to go out and clean it up.  Today better but not by much.  The summer chairs look so cool disappearing into the snow.  I know too much cold chills the brain.

Back to Gowganda yesterday afternoon

Great trip over the holidays, Worthington (west of Sudbury), Lindsay, Toronto, Peterboro, east of Parry Sound, and Huntsville. Lots of good food and catching up with everyone. Drove back from Huntsville yesterday the roads were dry and in good shape all the way home. 
 Not quite the same story this morning waking up to this....

Spent a few hours cleaning this up and it has snowed on and off the rest of the day too.  It's great to be back.

Last post for this year

 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Thanks for watching Gowganda Views