Frozen pond

[retropwr]

I got to the lake this afternoon, nicely frozen it is too.

Only thing is it is normally covered with loads of swans, canada geese, and ducks of various flavours. Today there were about 6 gulls walking around in the middle and that was it, not a duck, swan or goose anywhere. There were several parents with disapointed children who went to feed them.

I'll see what the pictures came out like a bit later and post a couple if they are any good, (I think your lake looks nicer). At the moment the camera is out of bounds as the cat has gone to sleep on the camera bag and he looks to cute to move.

[retropwr]

Well the cats woken up so here's a couple of pictures of the lake

[retropwr]

And a couple of views from the upstairs windows









Anyone know what make of bird this is?

[kaz]

Crikey... you've had more snow than we've had down here. Saying that, the rubbish hasn't been collected for well over a week now and the postman hasn't visited this year either... I think my hilly road may be the reason, but my neighbour has managed to drive up it. The bird pictures are lovely Richard.

[Tricia]

Beautiful pictures Richard. It's a redwing btw. Haven't seen one yet, but it was pictured on another forum. My two robins are always scrapping for the territory. Your two look quite friendly.

[retropwr]

That's the first Redwing I have seen, I guess the weather has brought them in to the feeders. There was 3 of them going through the leaf litter under some bushes, the only place in the garden where the ground is clear so it's where we are throwing the scraps.

I don't normally see 2 Robins together, as you say they are normally squabbling. It's like they have called a truce for a few days.

We were lucky with the rubbish being collected hours before the snow started, and we have a mad postman - doing his round yesterday wearing shorts !!!

[alison]

Maybe he didn't want to get his trousers wet.
They are lovely pictures and it is lovely to see the regular people back on here. Happy new year to you all. I love seeing all the pictures. I must really learn how to post them without having to ask Sonny all the time as I have some lovely ones of our sons Buzzard which I will post when I ask Sonny again
The lake looks well frozen. We went to the canal on New years day and most of it was frozen over then so it must be much worse now. Of course now we have to be concerned for the wildlife that normally swims along in these waters that are now frozen. I hope they will all be okay.

[kaz]

Tried to get a pic of this bird on my temp feeding station... but if flew off, so managed to get tree shot.

[retropwr]

Great Spotted Woodpecker?
We used to get a couple of them eating the peanuts

[kaz]

Yeap... that's the one. I only got the green woodpecker back in my Essex garden. Thinking about joining a wildlife club here... meet some like minded anoraks

[alison]

Thats a good idea as you can make a lot of friends and who knows they might really love gardening and could help you with all that grass mowing
Gosh today the weather is trecherous. The snow had all but melted away on the main roads and not too bad on the pond, the ice was much thinner and the hole from the waterfall was much wider, but this morning it is black ice on everything. Sonny set off out of the drive to slide all the way onto the road. He slid all the way to the main road. Then once on the main road he slid all over the place so felt it was much too dangerous to go to work and he has had a lot of years driving and nothing has stopped him before so it must have been really bad.
Needless to say I will not be venturing out this morning. It is forecast snow this afternoon. I really love snow but not on top of black ice.

[retropwr]

Another day at home here because of the white stuff, My car with it's summer tyres has no chance on the hills.

All the ice has gone from the pond now, good to see the fish are all OK.