Ice

One of the best things a picture does is to tell a story. My favorite pictures are not the artistic and beautiful pictures of dramatic birds in flight, but a picture of something people see with their own eyes everyday. Sometimes, there is a process going on there that can be quite mind-blowing.

Dramatic bird pictures are quite nice, of course. I have a few, most pictures are poor quality, like this one. Still, a story is also there to be told. This is a long range shot of a red tailed hawk resting on a cottonwood snag in the evening light. It is watching for the rabbits, who are tiptoeing out to try and sneak in some grazing before the ice and cold of this week's storm arrives.

American Kestrels, like this female, are usually found below the Intel site in the Summer, where they prey on chipmunks and small rodents. If they are in the bosque in December, they could be looking for cavities to nest in. Usually that would happen in March, according to other blogs. Kestrels prefer open fields for hunting, with a few trees along the edges for perches.

There is a slight promise of rain/snow as a strong stream of moisture is forcibly pushed over the Sierra Neva Mountains and into the arid southwest. We will definitely get wind. This photo is supposed to show the early clouds coalescing in the ABQ valley this morning. Our climate is totally controlled by mountains, both the Sierra Nevadas, and Sandias

This is a picture of the moon rising through the trees before the clouds moved in during the winter solstice. Now, the days will begin to get longer and heat will return.
 

New Mexico does not have much ice compared to other parts of the world. The little we do have, however, can act oddly and often have strange effects. Here, the sun is melting the ice on the west side of a ditch before the east side, affecting many types of ecosystems in north/south irrigation and drainage ditches. The groundwater is kept liquid by the insulation and retained heat of the earth. Notice that where the water froze, it is lifted above the ground by its expansion; a unique property of water that allows life to survive below the ice.

The fundamentals of the properties of ice are well understood by most high school students. There is always more to learn if you delve further into the subtleties however. Both water and ice can tell you stories, if you can listen and see. 

In this picture, the story is that the miniatures that local laborers used to smuggle onto construction sites have been replaced by larger bottles. Frozen in ice after being thrown out the window on the way to work. I'll probably fish them out later, once the ice has released them all.

 

Right now, the ice forms first where the heat loss is the fastest during the night. Physics can be weird, though. Turns out ice formation relies on a "delta heat". Basically, we call it the Mpemba effect, and move on. It is a cautionary note about how little humans know about simple things. You can see for yourself the odd concept that where the trees (and reeds) shade the water from the afternoon sun, the water stays ice free. Counter intuitive.

 

 Other things prevent the ice from forming. Here, the reeds shelter small fish that are constantly moving. Ice needs a bit more time to freeze when water is moving, so the area stays ice free. This allows oxygen to reach the fish below. The air inside the reeds is actually colder than the surrounding air because the sun does not warm it during the day. The liquid water often ripples in response to all the movement below it.

 

 The ducks keep their own areas ice free by constant movement during the night. Aquatic, air breathing animals have many behaviors they need to use to live with ice in their environment. Whales and seals in the Arctic are a good example. Humans still seem to poorly understand these interactions

Wood stacked up on the side of the path was used by someone to break the ice, probably for fun. In the summer, these same pieces will be used by turtles as sunning spots. But as the ice melts, and re-freezes at night, any sign of damage will disappear. leaving a smooth, untroubled surface again. Like a hawk watching the sunset before a storm.