Announcing the Spring Thaw Contest Winners!

This spring marked our first ever Spring Thaw contest, which encouraged Georgian Bay enthusiasts to submit stories and photos of spring on the Bay. The submissions that came in were wonderful, with photos of creatures great and small, stories of start-of-season adventures, and images of lingering ice and brave polar bear swims all celebrating one thrilling season!

Though all the submissions were fantastic, our judges were, with much difficulty, eventually able to pick a couple winners. So, without further ado - your Spring Thaw winners!

Photo Category

Due to the large number of photo entries, we have chosen three honourable mentions and one winner.

First Place - Marianne King-Wilson (Parry Sound)

Marianne says: "The ice was still hugging the far shores, but breaking up in the foreground near the shoreline of the old town beach and the Sail Parry Sound property on March 16, 2010 around 5 PM when I took this photo of a lone kayaker out to enjoy the calm, gorgeous sunset."

Honourable Mention - Burnley McDougall

Burnley says: "Our Newfy, Martha, is a persistent muskrat hunter on our dock. She got a babe in her mouth and when I made her drop it, the baby lay on the rock in front of me." (And yes, the wee muskrat did survive!)

Honourable Mention - Dianne Carmichael (Cognashene)

Dianne says: "April 3rd 2010 opening weekend at the Carmichael Cottage, Tabbasakwa Island. First swim of the season! Ice flows, 42F water and Sunny 28C weather!"

Honourable Mention - Barb Nettleton (Sans Souci)

Story Category

First Place - "Spring 1999" by Carl Spiess (Key Harbour)

I may have the best story. In March/April 1999, my wife Jennifer and I went up to Key Harbour to watch the ice melt with our kids. The original idea was to go in by skidoo, and out by boat. But since our twin boys were less than a year old, it took quite a while to pack and prepare for a month without a grocery trip. We eventually went in by scoot (air boat) in mid March, while there was still ice almost everywhere. The local residents were kind enough to ferry us in on their scoots, as we had around 15 Rubbermaid bins full of food, supplies and diapers. Riding in a scoot is quite an adventure, and is not for the faint of heart.

Our boys Phillip and Geoffrey celebrated their first birthday while we were up there, and moved from mostly crawling to confidently walking during that month. We had the entire community of Key Harbour (in total: 11 of us) over for Easter dinner. It was great experience.

I was managing the GBA and then GBLT websites at the time and used really slow dial up internet access to also do work remotely for the month. We took a half dozen DVDs with us to watch on our laptop, and over the entire month, we only got to watch two of them. Keeping the wood fires stoked at night and eventually getting the water running were our biggest challenges; well that and keeping the kids entertained.

I did get to windsurf one afternoon:

Honourable Mention - "Thoughts about Spring on the Bay" by Mary Bromley (Manitou)

There is a ritual around our first dinner of the season on the Bay. We always read
the note that was placed under the Rockman's armpit last fall...Rockman... that heap of rocks that stands stoically at the helm of the island enduring all seasons and never letting us down as the news of family/nature/and politics stew and percolate over winter and comes to us as if from R.man himself, full of forgotten and poignant details of life last year and getting us thinking about what this year
has in store.

The droughts on the outer Georgian Bay Islands usually don't begin til June but
this May we saw things drying up around the edges more quickly.

With only about one rock pond left and evaporated almost down to nothing the tadpoles were fighting for their lives so I started filling the pond up with more water in some desperate attempt to turn the tide on the dreaded drought. Of course, I hadn't noticed the garter snake enjoying this amphibian soup until I interrupted its meal and it had to slither away.

For two days, the pale yellow elegant swallowtail butterflies were in abundance
fluttering and flitting mostly amongst the purple lilacs which were in profusion this spring. I've never seen so many pass through before. At the same time
there were Red Admirals (butterflies) and a multitude of the 'short-version'
dragonflies - those ones with the shorter bodies - making it seem like a busy
airport with nowhere to land.

I found out something interesting about geese. The few that come to eat the
lettuce shoots in the garden seem to drop their weight in poop in no time at all...BUT a flock of about 50 landed for a migration rest on a shoal too close to our water intake pipe. They were there for about 3/4 of an hour and after they
carried on their journey I went to see what they left behind. Almost nothing.
Phew. They take this migrating business seriously and travel light.

Sadly, we see many fewer birds pass through during migration (except for
geese!). The warbler count is down from about 25 different kinds to about half that number.

It amazes us that the only time we see fox snakes is when the birds are in the
nest, just ripe for eating. They travel up and down all the trees and the
cacophony of flapping bird wings and plaintive warning calls from parents is
heartbreaking. I saw a grackle come to the rescue of a red-eyed vireo nest
and actually attack the snake right out of the tree. It is a miracle that any birds
are alive to leave the nest. But then the snake has to eat too. Perhaps
the birds are more at risk because we no longer have the frogs that fox snakes used to eat as well. And I am guilty bringing cats into the mix although they seem more interested in rodents.

We finally had rain. Those thunderheads that line up and down the coast so
rarely come out where we are and I have to admit I suffer from
'drought-anxiety' when weeks go by without a drop of rain. So I am now taking a sigh of relief. Everything on the island has come alive again. For now. Maybe it's time to test the fire pump.

With rain hopefully there will be blueberries and other delicacies for the bears further inland this year. They were swimming island to island desperate for food last year. Last year was our first encounter...My cats still look out the window at the cottage with a degree of wariness where a bear started to pull off the molding. Let's hope they are not so interested in cottages this summer.

Things are changing, like the water level, but
. the birds still know how to build nests and look after their young
. the snakes still know when the eggs/birds are in the nest
. the flowers still bloom in time for the butterflies and the ruby-throat
. and the insects come in time to feed the baby birds
And it's still breathtaking to witness the changing winds and waves, making it seem like we're on a ship at sea at times. We are lucky to have the time to
watch it all and look forward to another summer on the Bay.

I will be emailing all winners and honourable mentions by the end of the week regarding your prizes, so keep an eye on your inbox. Thank you to our judges, and thank you to everyone who entered and made the contest so great!