Pancake Day comes early thanks to the River Spey
This year’s wintry conditions have been perfect for one of nature’s special tricks, seen on the River Spey most clearly at Kingussie.
They are ice pancakes and have been cropping up here and there with the cold spell enduring long enough to enable their creation.
Ice pancakes are a phenomenon where discs of ice anywhere from 20 centimetres to two metres wide are formed, creating a spectacular sight for those lucky enough to be there to see it.
They are regarded as a relatively rare phenomenon that turn up only in extremely cold oceans and lochs.
These works of natural art are most commonly sighted in the Baltic and around Antarctica, but also form relatively frequently on the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada.
They require specific conditions. They form when foam on a river begins to freeze and begins to join together and as they are sucked into an eddy – a swirling current of water – circular shapes are created. As other bits of frozen foam and ice hit the forming disc they freeze to it and increase its size.
They look solid, but are quite slushy.
