Delta Ponds again -- full of water

 

 

We've had weeks of rain and/or snow, seemingly constant and indeed, mostly constant. This morning was clear so I headed out for my first good walk in a couple of weeks, or more. Walked down to the ponds to see how much the rain has affected them, although I could tell just driving by that they were much fuller than usual. These ponds are actually an old gravel pit, but over the years since they've been city property there has been an opening cut between the ponds and the river, and then culverts under the bike path and roadway to link it all together so they are a natural overflow area for times like this. At least one of the culverts has some power assist pumps, to help things along. And then there's a natural creek that they empty into at the other end, which also has some good overflow areas at a highway cloverleaf. 

That's all a long way of saying that there's lots of water in those ponds right now! The geese were enjoying it, certainly. And more were flying in even as I walked home.

This is one of my favorite views, from the path through the ponds looking at the bike bridge in the distance. And this time of year, the light tends to be nice in the mornings, too. Not a lot of ducks or geese or other birds out there. The water surges into this area via the above-mentioned pumps and culverts, and then under the bridges that link the various land masses. 

I probably could have found some birds if I'd walked further than this, but my goal was the bike bridge so I could look down on all of this.

This is from the bike bridge looking over much of this part of the ponds. The previous photo was from near the footbridge near the center top of this photo. The water comes into this section from the left, and you can see the motion showing in ripples as it floods in. Maybe that's why there were no birds there. Or maybe it's just too deep at the moment for the herons and egrets to stand in and feed. Who knows!