This seagull looks out at a massive amount of ice in the Niagara River. The bird is looking at the lower Niagara River, in Lewiston, New York.
Weeks of below freezing temperatures have had their effect in the nearby bodies of water. Lake Erie is completely frozen over, and the Niagara River is full of huge chunks of ice. The Niagara Queen II and William H. Latham, ice breakers from Canada and the United States respectively, have been busily breaking up ice so it doesn’t clog up the intakes to the power stations in both countries. Teamwork does make the dream work, and these ice breakers always do a great job. Thank you to everyone involved with keeping us warm and safe from wild weather conditions!
These waters don’t usually get this much ice. The boat slips are completely iced in. Usually, fishing boats will leave from here to do winter fishing, but it’s not possible this year. Here’s another view of the ice and the snow. The weather conditions have changed, and the snow should start melting fairly soon. But, for sure, winter is not ending very soon, so I expect more snow.I am just fascinated by the roundness of this building. It’s really cool.At Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York, there were a lot of birds in the water. A few birders had set up spotting scopes, and all of the birders had binoculars. I had borrowed a set of binoculars for the occasion. It was amazing to watch all of those birds. Some of them were diving ducks, who were rapidly going after fish in the cold water.Here is another view from a different angle. You can see that the water is full of birds.Wave to civilization!! I mean, “Hi Canada! Thank you for being a bright shining light in such a dark time!”The ducks and geese are very busy!Winter makes everything look stark and bare, but there is beauty in the starkness and bareness of a dormant space. The world is truly a beautiful place. And often it’s a beautiful place not because of the humans but despite the humans. We could do a much better job in protecting and tending to our precious earth.
Here’s a list of all of the bird species that could be seen in the places that I was able to visit: common goldeneye, greater scaup, buffleheads, common merganser, turkey vulture (on the roof at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Lewiston, N.Y.), black vulture (also on top of the roof at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church), long tailed duck, tundra swan, and red throated loon.
Thank you to Tom B. for providing transportation and the binoculars, as well as for bird information.
