Winter’s curtain call…

By ED WESELY

NARROWSBURG, NY — Swelled by rain and melting snow in mid-March, the Upper Delaware River rafted gigantic blocks of river ice onto a boat access just above the Narrowsburg Bridge and dumped them there — where, on March 24, they still resembled an immense boulder field.

Gradually, the spring sun will unveil a paved parking lot that now supports the ice. For scale: local resident Barbara Yeaman, who’s looking toward the river and Pennsylvania shore, is about five and a half feet tall.

… and spring’s debut

As the final patches of snow melt, the last of our “large winter stoneflies” have been hatching from local rivers and streams to mingle with the early insects and returning ducks that define the March equinox. On March 23, the inch-long stonefly pictured below was resting on a bridge railing, about 40 feet above the Lackawaxan River.