Shuswap Lake Seasons

I sent my grandson a picture of Shuswap Lake for a birthday card, and thought about all the pictures I have taken since 2011 of the lake, and clouds, and water, and light. Most of these images have been taken from my deck, or the front of the house which is close to the lake.

I have often considered uploading my photos of the lake and its moods in one place -- so here are a selected few.

Many of these photos show a lagoon which was created in the mudflats between our shoreline and the main part of the lake. I suspect that human intervention was involved, as it just does not feel natural to have a ridge of soil in such a place. The lagoon has cattails and one solitary shrub willow on its far side. The first photograph below shows these features. A number of the other photographs show the willow, sometimes off in the distance, and sometimes almost submerged (in high water). The lagoon is filled with wildlife throughout the year - a fortunate consequence of whatever project led to its creation.

Spring

Shuswap Lake rises and falls every year by 3 to 4 metres on average (between 10 and 13 feet). In the shallow areas along the shore, such as Salmon Arm Bay, the receding water leaves extensive mudflats exposed. The photo below gives a glimpse of these mudflats in the middle distance. These mudflats are significant habitat for migratory birds in the spring and fall.

March 16, 2012

March 28, 2012

The lake begins to rise in April.

April 27, 2017

Spring and fall are the high seasons for migratory birds on Shuswap Lake.

May 11, 2016 - American Pelicans

The website www.shuswaplakewatch.com provides data and graphs for Shuswap Lake for the last dozen years or so.

Here is the graph up to today's date, January 27, 2019.

Source: www.shuswaplakewatch.com

High water averages mid June, although in 2012 it was June 27, and in 2018 it was May 29. The 2012 level was the highest level since the floods of 1972, coming to around 7 cm of the 1972 flood level. The photo below was taken about a week after the lake had begun to drop. In the foreground is a fence. This fence is at the base of rock rip rap which was installed in the early 1990's when Heron View was built. Our house sits a few feet back from the top of this rock rip rap. Notice how far up the fence the water has risen.

July 3, 2012

Two years after the above photo, in 2014, the lake peaked June 6, 2014 - a full three weeks earlier than in 2012. The photo below was taken July 2, 2014 -  almost exactly the same time of year as the photo above, but showing a very different lake landscape.

July 2 2014

Here is another photo taken later that same day.

Sunset, July 2, 2014

Summer

By mid-summer the water levels have receded.

August 6, 2016

The Shuswap summers often have extended high pressure systems, which make for spectacular sunsets.

July 19, 2012

Fall

In the valley bottom, fall starts late and sometimes lasts into December.

October 26, 2018

October 23, 2015

November 3, 2011

December 6, 2011

November 19, 2013

November 28, 2018

Winter

January 5, 2014

January 11, 2017

January 5, 2014

I don't have a lens which easily photographs the birds that live in the lagoon. Many of my shots are taken from a distance. Here is one of blue herons lined up along the edge of the lagoon in the winter snow, all resting, but possibly keeping an eye out for the occasional vole which might scurry under the snow.

December 11, 2018 - Blue herons on the shore of the lagoon

And so ends a brief  tour of a year on the foreshore of Shuswap Lake at Salmon Arm. The shrub willow which appeared in my first photographs in the fall of 2011 is still there, as are the bulrushes, and the lagoon.  But there is a proposal to put an elevated walkway somewhere out in the marsh, connecting an existing walkway near the wharf with First Nations lands to the west. If the city and the bands can find the funds, and if the environmental assessments show that this won't damage habitat for wildlife and fish.... then future images of this scene might look very different.

December 10, 2018