Three more interesting finds on the first day of 2012, which need further investigation.

I'm looking forward to learning more about all your recent discoveries, Mr. Wilson. I hadn't realized there would be so many bugs wandering around on the snow - amazing what you can see if you take the time to really look!

Happy New Year to you and everyone at Gordon Terrace Elementary School!

Happy New Year GT -- I'll bet you are all excited to begin classes again tomorrow. Hope you all had a nice holiday.

I'm feeling sad about that poor turtle. I hope he succumbed to old age and not something other than that.

I keep going back to your picture of the odd circle on the lake. Do you suppose it was caused by an underwater spring ?

Happy New Year to both Judys.

As far as the mystery circle on Elizabeth Lake picture is concerned, I have my own ideas, but I'm going to ask the children for their ideas in class tomorrow.

This morning each tribe was given a copy of the mystery picture. Mr. Wilson asked us to come up with questions and/or ideas about what it could be. Then we shared our thoughts with the class.

Before we heard ideas about what it could be, we discussed where Mr. Wilson had taken the picture. Suggestions included Antarctica, on ice, and Elizabeth Lake somewhere near the lake. Our teacher told us he had taken it at Elizabeth Lake on the frozen lake.

Then we discussed how it got there. Ideas included it crashed, or was made by a human or an animal.

Some of us thought it looked like an eye, an alien spaceship, an alien, or a bug. Others thought it was a footprint or an animal track. Maybe it was a fishing hole or a mud puddle.

Then Mr. Wilson got us thinking about how big the mystery object was. The first suggestion was shoe-size followed by nail-size. We got warmer as we went from arm-size to leg-size to from the waist down, and eventually to whole body-size.

Afterwards Mr. Wilson got us thinking about the circumstances which led to the mystery object's appearance. We learned that the mystery shape/pattern had appeared on the surface of the ice after a day of rain, followed by sunshine, followed by sleet or snow. It helped us to realize that the weather and nature can create some amazing patterns.

After several mild days, overnight rain and an afternoon of winter squalls as cooler weather returned, I was interested to find out what had happened at Elizabeth Lake. Not surprisingly any snow on the lake had disappeared. As I looked more carefully, I discovered several objects partly frozen in or under the ice.


This cluster of bugs looks remarkably like a group of the bug shown in Jan. 1 entry and gives rise to further questions.


How did this explosive cattail finish here? Could it have something to do with the wind, melting and freezing?

But the most interesting discovery was a spider, which was lying still on the ice until I got too close with my camera. Then it suddenly moved, and showed that it was very much alive. How did it get out there on the ice about 30 metres from the shoreline?

Yesterday's walk on the lake was much cooler than of late because of the wind. It was less noticeable in the sheltered areas near the shoreline, but in the middle of the lake where there was little protection, it quickly chilled to the bone whenever I took a picture.
Once again there were treasures to be found.


This bug was frozen under the ice. Closeby I discovered two more spiders some distance apart slowly moving across the ice. Why are they out on the ice? How did they get there?


I made an interesting discovery about the clusters of bugs on the ice. Now that the snow has all but disappeared off the lake, it looks like many of them are to be found close to gas holes. This is something we'll discuss in class tomorrow to get my students' ideas.


This beautiful western painted turtle shell means that this is one turtle that won't be around next spring when the ice melts.