Ice Out!
Late April and Early May
Phenology – “a branch of science concerned with the relationship between climate and periodic biological phenomena (as the migration of birds or the flowering and fruiting of plants).
“Ice out!” The pond is finally free of ice, which is a big deal in the North Country. For me, it’s a sign that the long winter is coming to a close, that it’s time to put the old Adirondack chair back out by the pond, and a reminder to take in the bird feeders. For migrating geese and mergansers, the newly open ponds offer a place to attract a mate, seek a nesting spot, or simply find enough food to power flights to Canada. For wood frogs, it’s time to get the earliest possible start in the vernal pools and small ponds. For turtles, it’s time to wake up, limp to the pond, and wash off the mud that encrusts their shells after their long, dormant winter hidden away in a hole not far from their favorite pond.
Each year, the timing is a little different. This year, after temperature averaged close to 60 degrees in late March, our pond was nearly ice-free by April 2nd (above photo). More often, ice doesn’t break up until much later in April.
Photos and text by Carl D. Martland, a founding member of ACT and a long-time resident of Sugar Hill. Quotations from his journals indicate the date of and the situation depicted in each photograph.
At first, there are only a few open spots along the shore:
April 22, 2018. The pond remains iced over, except for small strips of open water at the edge of the cattails.
A cold snap may fill up these open edges and freeze any puddles melted atop the ice, but warmer weather eventually wins out. The ice keeps thinning, begins to rot, and then just disappears. In 2019, our pond went from iced over to “Ice Out!” in just a couple of warm days starting on April 19th. As soon as any open water was available, some of the usual suspects showed up:
April 19, 2019, 70 degrees, mostly cloudy, 10:45am. The pond is only 10% ice-free, but 80% of the grey ice is quickly rotting away. A pair of hooded mergansers have just flown in, and they are having no trouble breaking through and creating a wider opening. The first wood frogs have arrived, but they are very shy, making only a few of their quacking calls. Several hopped into the pond as I approached, but the first one I saw was floating on a tiny iceberg that was only an inch-and-a-half across! At 8pm, it was still 66 degrees, and I could hear peepers and wood frogs from Jane’s Pond, which, like ours, is still half iced over. The mergansers decided to stay for the night, and snipe are calling, seemingly far overhead, but never – as usual – making themselves visible.
Time to Take a Bath
Painted turtles spend the long winter hidden away in a small hole somewhere not too far from a pond. In spring, when the ground has thawed enough to let them emerge, they make their way to the pond. In April 2019, a couple of days after the hooded mergansers and wood frogs showed up, I came upon a medium-sized painted turtle slowly – very slowly! – making its way to the water. Its shell was still covered with mud, and it had spent all its energy in getting out into the open:
April 21, 2019, 1130am, 66 degrees: A painted turtle sat on a mossy root about five feet from the SW corner of the pond. It was so sluggish that I not only took many pictures, I was able to pick it up and measure its shell, which was 4.5 inches long.
Spring Weekend
Each year, frogs and toads come to the pond to breed, led by the wood frogs who begin to assemble as soon as vernal pools and small ponds start to open up. These frogs spend the winter buried somewhere in the woods, where they also spend most of the rest of the year. However, like college students sick of studying, they love to gather for one big “Spring Weekend” at the beach. At the first sign of open water, a few males make their way toward the pond, quacking only now and then. For a day or two, we hear more frogs approaching, coming from different directions to converge upon a spot where small inlets are found among the cattails or under overhanging tree branches. And then the party begins, the quacking grows louder, and finally, the females show up.
A female frog releases hundreds of eggs, which are fertilized by a male that has grabbed onto her back in a position called “amplexus”. Since two or more males may try to grab on at the same time, it is good that the females are much larger and stronger than the males. When she wants to take a breath, she can rise to the surface, taking the males along with her.
Photo: April 14, 2020. First day of wood frogs “Spring Weekend” at our pond.
Each female releases a cluster of a hundred or more eggs, and more than a hundred of these clusters might be found massed together within an area of just a few square yards. The party lasts only two or three days, and then the frogs head back to the woods.
The egg masses are slimy, and I have often seen newts slipping and sliding over and under them, presumably enjoying the sensation. In this photo, taken on April 23, 2017, you can see the recently-laid eggs along with the strange shell of a caddis fly larva. Tadpoles had emerged from these eggs by May 4th but mostly swarmed within a few feet of the empty egg masses.
Brilliant Birds, Unusual Birds
“Ice Out” is also the signal to watch for migrating birds. Some of the most interesting birds pass through late April and early May, including flickers, mergansers, and purple finches. And once in a while, if you keep your eyes open, you may see a rare visitor, such as one of the yellowlegs.
This purple finch sat in the spruce tree in our back yard, chewing on a seed it had just taken from our feeder (Photo. April 25, 2015). These finches will show up at a feeder along with the similarly colored house finches. If you are lucky enough to hear one of them singing, you will never forget it:
April 7-8, 2001. I went snowshoeing in the Lower 40, A few birds were around, including a purple finch whose song was so splendid and so varied that I mistook it for a flock of songbirds.
May 4, 2018, cloudy, 74 degrees, 230. I first noticed this flicker’s red neck mark bobbing in the grass about 15 yards ahead as I walked along our dam. I stayed at least 20 feet away, and it didn’t care my watching as it poked first in the grass, then near the alder clump, and finally down on the shore where it pecked on rotted stumps of an older alder clump
We often see Canada Geese and Common Mergansers at Coffin Pond in the spring. However, the mergansers are generally quite skittish, flying to the opposite side of the pond rather than posing for a photo. Photo: April 24, 2016.
May 11, 2019. A lesser yellowlegs popped up as I approached the far end of the pond; it called, then flew across the end of the pond, landing on the shore by the dock. It stayed there, calling, while two Canada geese swam by.
