Photo by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Stephanie Ferris walks her dog Marti this morning along the towpath by the Glenwood Avenue canal bridge. Ferris said a group of regulars are usually out walking the canal on Saturdays in Medina.
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – The stretch of bitterly cold weather in recent weeks, with some slight warm-ups, has produced a bumper crop of icicles. I’ve been on the lookout for some of these fine formations. Some of them I didn’t dare get too close, not wanting to get impaled.
I’ve admired the nice row of icicles on the Center for Worforce Development building on Route 31 in Albion, right next to the GCC campus. I stopped by around 5 p.m. today when the place was desolate without the hustle and bustle of college students and job hunters.
Photo by Lisa Sietmann
ALBION – While looking out her back window on Tuesday, Lisa Sietmann spotted a deer standing upright for about 10 minutes. Sietmann said it was an amusing sight. The deer was nibbling on fallen limbs in her backyard on Route 31A.
It’s the coldest winter in about four decades. It feels like day after day of brutal, bitter cold.
But Orleans County somehow shines amidst the snow and ice. Rick Baase of Carlton took the top photograph of the sunrise on Tuesday when it was 2-below zero.
It looks like steam is coming off Lake Ontario in the photo about 2 miles east of Point Breeze.
Peggy Barringer took this picture of the frosted window on her front door at Albion. The iced windows have revealed some wondrous artistic patterns.
Julie Miller of Barre last week took this picture of a sundog, which resembles a rainbow on a blistering cold day. She took it of a scene on Route 31A, west of Route 98 near Barre Stone Products.
Photos by Charles Price
Charles Price took these photos of a Snowy Owl last Sunday on Route 63, north of the village of Lyndonville. Price captured the owl in flight. Orleans Hub has posted a lot of Snowy Owl photos the past month, but we haven’t seen too many of the owl in action.
This has been a historic, record-breaking winter. And I’m not talking about what feels like near-constant cold.
Snowy Owls have appeared in big numbers, perhaps the biggest migration in a half century, according to bird and wildlife experts.
The owls with luminous yellow eyes are showing up in Western New York at open fields and airports. The owls generally don’t migrate below Canada. This year they have been spotted as far south as Cape Hatteras, N.C.
Dan Mawn of Holley took this photo of a Snowy Owl near the Genesee County Airport on West Saile Drive in Batavia.
GAINES – The plunging temperatures and snow-covered landscape may be a harsh reality of winter. The past month has been particularly brutal, with an ice storm followed by many very cold days.
The photo on the top shows the Erie Canal with a barn just north of the historic waterway. He picture was taken from canal bridge.
I took this picture about two months ago on Nov. 16. It was a warm fall day back then.
Those of us in Orleans County have the pleasure of experiencing a variety of weather, from sub-zero temperatures to 90-degree summer days.
I think the changing seasons is one of the appeals of this area. I wouldn’t want to live in Florida with all of their insects and alligators. Their constant warm days would get a little boring after a while.
Photos by Peggy Barringer
ALBION – Peggy Barringer has seen numerous photos of Snowy Owls posted on Facebook, Orleans Hub and other media outlets for the past month. She felt envious and wanted to see one with her own eyes.
She did a funny spoof of a Snowy Owl sighting that was featured on the Hub on Jan. 6.
Yesterday, she finally saw the owl in person while in Batavia. The owl was near the Genesee County Airport on Saile Drive. Barringer snapped a few photos. She says she didn’t have her good camera, with the long lens, but these are pretty good.
Another Hub reader, Art Graton, sent in this picture of a Snowy Owl he took on Jan. 14. The owl is by Barber Road in East Shelby.
ALBION – Orleans Hub has published several photos of Snowy Owls in Orleans County in recent weeks with the majestic creatures spotted in Barre, Lyndonville and Kendall.
One of the owls has been hanging around Albion the past few days. Jaime Brennan shared this picture taken on Lattin Road. Her husband ventured into the corn field to get a photo of the owl.
I’m glad he got close. The owls typically nest in the Artic tundra and winter in Canada. Bird watchers believe we are having a historic year with the presence of so many Snowy Owls in the U.S.
LYNDONVILLE – Dena Scribner took these pictures today of ice floating on Johnson Creek in Lyndonville. The ice is jammed in spots along the creek. The ice is on the move after a big thaw following very cold temperatures the previous week.
The bottom photo is taken from the Blood Road Bridge.
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Saturday’s warm temperatures, at about 50 degrees, wiped out some of the snow and ice that built up in the previous week.
There was still a layer of ice at the bottom of the canal. I took this photo after descending the breakwall in front of the Brown Street bridge in Albion.
I was out for a jog along the muddy Erie Canal Towpath and snapped a few photos with my SmartPhone. (This is a marvelous invention, by the way.)
Sandy Creek runs under the canal near Community Action. This is a well-known site for those of us who like to get out and use the Towpath. Normally the water is serene and slow-moving, but yesterday the creek had an angry attitude.
This photo was taken from the top of a culvert by the canal, looking north.
I seldom venture off the Towpath to explore near the creek, but I liked the paths in the woods with the fading snow.
ALBION – The warmup today melted snow and gave off a morning mist along the Erie Canal. Peggy Barringer took these photos west of the Main Street bridge in Albion. Much of Western New York is under a flood watch due to the snow melt. Orleans County is not on that list.
CARLTON – Peggy Barringer of Albion stopped by Point Breeze in Carlton and Lomond Shores in Kendall on Thursday and captured images of the ice formations by the lake.
After many days of below-freezing temperatures it looks like we have some mini-glaciers down at the Point.
The photo above shows the breakwall and pier coated in snow and ice.
Some big hunks of ice have settled in at the Point.
The Pier at Point Breeze
Icicles find a place to hang.
At Lomond Shores, icicles look like Jaws coming out of the water.
KENDALL – The sub-zero temperatures in recent days did not scare off the Snowy Owls that have been creating a stir the past month with multiple sightings in Orleans County and other spots in Western New York.
Vince Flow took this picture this morning near Lake Ontario in Kendall. Flow has a zoom lens and he has taken several photos of the owls in recent weeks. He said they like the wide open country in Kendall.
The owls typically nest in the Artic tundra and winter in Canada. Bird watchers believe we are having a historic year with the presence of so many Snowy Owls in the U.S. The owls have migrated into the U.S. in search of food. About 90 percent of their diet is the small rodent lemmings, but the owls also eat mice, voles, ducks, hares and fish.
Photo by Mike Beach
Mike Beach sent this photo of the Medina Waterfalls in the snow-covered Oak Orchard gorge. The Oak Orchard Creek runs under the Erie Canal just west of the Horan Road canal bridge. The creek then drops in the waterfalls. Beach took this photo from the canal towpath.
Beach, an Albion resident, stops often to look at the waterfalls. Orleans Hub on Nov. 11 used a video that Beach took in the fall of kayakers going over the waterfalls. Click here to see that.
Photo by Tom Rivers – This photo was taken in the summer from the top of lighthouse at Oak Orchard Harbor. It shows a port that hasn’t been dredged in 10 years.
POINT BREEZE – One of Orleans County’s prime assets has gradually been filling with sediment, threatening to make it impassable for bigger boats. A clogged channel would hurt the county’s fishing and tourism industries.
Finally, this year the Oak Orchard Harbor is scheduled to be dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is one of seven on the south shore of Lake Ontario that is expected to be dredged in 2014.
The Orleans County Legislature last week expressed its formal support for the projects, passing a resolution that was sent to federal officials working on the dredging.
The Oak Orchard Harbor is critical to Orleans County’s $12 million annual fishing industry. The harbor hasn’t been dredged since 2004, and some boats have been grounded in shallow parts of the channel.
County officials have been pressing for several years for federal funds to be released to remove sediment from the harbor.
U.S. Rep. Chris Collins in April announced funding was designated to dredge Oak Orchard, Olcott and Wilson harbors in 2014. The harbors are important for recreational and economic reasons, he said.
The Army Corps of Engineers is proposing in 2014 to work on those three harbors, plus sites at Rochester, Irondequoit Bay, Little Sodus Bay and Oswego.
According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Oak Orchard Harbor in the town of Carlton was last dredged in 2004 when 10,700 cubic yards of material was removed. This harbor should be dredged every three to five years. In order to maintain adequate channel depth, 18,000 cubic yards of dredging will be required. The total sediment backlog is estimated at approximately 35,000 cubic yards.
Collins has co-sponsored the Realize America’s Maritime Promise Act or RAMP Act (H.R. 335), which would help ensure the funding is in place for routine maintenance dredging.
