Spring in the Channel

 We have lost a lot of snow yesterday and during the night. There was fairly steady rain overnight and I measured .80 in. I'm sure water is pouring into the pond right now and streams may be overflowing their banks in some places with all the snow melt going on. All that warm water will help the pond ice to melt - and this is the very last day you can make a pick in the Ice-Out Contest, so better get at it; you have until midnight tonight. Then the on-line options are taken down and anything sent by regular mail postmarked after April 1 cannot be included in the contest.

Gretchen Farnsworth emailed me this morning. She said Sandy Beach Road is pretty bad again after being somewhat improved after the town honed. She said it's the worst she's seen it since they moved here, but added that it still is better than the mud and ruts  they endured when they lived in Moretown. That is somehow good to know - there are other towns that are traditionally worse off than Cabot and Danville during Mud Season! On the left is a picture she took of the Cabot crew working on Sandy Beach road last week.

Gretchen also sent these  great photos of the channel that brings the major supply of water into Joe's Pond. It passes by her house  and she has a great vantage point for watching wildlife, especially migrating birds, as well as how the pond is thawing or freezing seasonally. She wrote:  The channel has opened and closed a few times now. The geese have been coming through depending on how open it’s been. I’ve seen both common mergansers and buffleheads but very few so far. Certainly the ice is increasingly unstable and I have been happy that I haven’t seen any ice fisherman lately by the big island. 

The top photo is of the upper channel, looking northwest from her lawn at the forested meadows that are now protected by the Passumpsic Valley Land Trust from any development, and the second shot is looking east towards the broad part of the pond. That is Toll's Island on the right, and the point of land on the left is the shore of Channel Drive. Plenty of open water for migrating birds to land in, and they are apparently making good use of this stopover point. Some may hang out here for the summer - the geese are especially not very welcome visitors as they tend to take over available lawns, docks and beach areas, making a real mess because if they nest here, they have large broods of chicks. They are a welcome sign that spring is on the way, though.

Before we know it, we'll be mowing lawns and complaining about the heat!