Icy Kent Narrows Channel
After posting the freeze-over photos of Marshy Creek and the southend of the Kent Narrows Channel, I had a few community neighbors ask if I had gotten a chance to see and take photos of whether all of the Kent Narrows Channel had frozen over. Last year it did and Maryland DNR’s cutter, the A. V. Sandusky, was sent through to break the thick 9″ ice to help take the stress off the surrounding marinas, bulkheads, and watermens’ boats iced in.
Photos? Of course, I had. 🙂
Although both ends of the Channel were pretty much frozen over, near the Rt. 18 and Rt. 50 Bridges, centerpoint of the Kent Narrows Channel, the tides’ currents were doing a great job keeping the waters open at the bridges’ bases. Those pretty swift currents run up to 8-10 mph during its high-end speed.
I got out of the car and took these photos from the Rt. 18 Watermans Bridge the morning of February 20th.
South Side to the right, where the Kent Narrows watermen keep their boats. Except for the front right corner, from there back into their marina, the waters were frozen over with the boats iced in.
South side, looking directly down to Prospect Bay. Kent Island Yacht Club is upper right. Big Owl’s Tiki Bar and Bridges Restaurant in upper left. Our community is to the back left opposite the jetty strip stretching out to the markers upper center.
South side, to the left. Tower is where the bridge operator opens and closes the bridge for tall boat traffic year-round.
North side with a bit more ice trying to freeze over, to the right is Harris Crab House, Red Eyes Dock Bar, with Mears Point Marina at the upper end and behind the restaurant establishments.
North side, you can see a water channel was still open from the tidal currents.
Kent Narrows Southend Channel shot from my balcony
It is still quite amazing to see this amount of freezing through the swift Kent Narrows Channel. With the low 40’s temps and strong sunshine today, it surely helped melt it some before the next round of frigid temps. Geez, today it almost felt tropical outside! LOL Well maybe not that nice, but still felt so much better to the body.
Since above might be a bit boring for my birder friends, here’s a shot of a Song Sparrow visiting my make-shift bird feeder set out on my balcony during the snow so they had a chance to find something until the snow melts away.
Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Always shy coming to the plate close to our patio doors, I tossed a few out on the snow still on the balcony.
He has been sharing with couple House Finches and Dark-eyed Juncos. All seem to be happily enjoying ‘cuz the dish is empty when I return home! 🙂
Photos by Donna 
Quite a sight!
It is! Never a dull moment around Kent Narrows…..especially the summer months! 🙂
Neat! BUT… I’m getting cold just looking at all that ice! LOL 🙂
Me too! But wasn’t those milder temps today awesome!! And now we’re headed back into the cold…. 😦
Awesome views Donna! Keep yourself warm OK? 🙂
Thanks HJ, will do. You keep warm too! 🙂
I’m surprised that brackish tidal water would freeze that solidly, but then, it has been extremely cold this winter.
It is surprising to see it, I’m amazed at the photos I’ve seen on our news of the whole Chesapeake Bay.
I lived in Maryland when I was growing up. Your blog makes me want to go back and visit…in the spring, not the winter. 🙂
Our Maryland winters have gotten crazier and crazier the past few years, so most definitely spring…or fall! 🙂
Cool photos of the iced in channel. Rockhold Creek looks much the same. Like your sparrows, ours are also happy with the seed we provide. This time of year we get dark-eyed juncos, tufted titmice, sparrows, blue jays, cardinals, wrens, doves, squirrels (of course), and purple finch.
Seeing the amazing frozen water photos on our local news has been neat. Boy, if I lucked out on seeing a Blue Jay anywhere around our community, I’d probably go nuts, lol. That’s one bird I’m trying to capture a better quality photo than I’ve gotten to date. 🙂
Thank you for the sparrow but the ice was nice!
We all gotta have a little bird love no matter what. 🙂 We had a cutter come through to relieve the ice’s stress on the channel and neighboring marinas. That adds to the neatness of watching the moving ice as it shifts & slowly melts as the tidal currents have more power to push something that can move now.