Allonby to Mawbray ..with ice...

Is it really a week ago? Life has been busy, work increasingly so and difficult, so time to blog has been restricted ...but it was a lovely walk, as always form Mawbray to Allonby. The shore was frozen and any ice on the water percolating onto the beach was then washed up onto a frozen tide line. 

Ice patterns. 

Frost on seaweed.

Lots of oystercatchers and curlew, but there was no need to disturb them on such a cold day,
 when they would waste energy flying off....unlike the ill informed dog walker! 

More ice....

Allonby Beck continues to erode the complex Holocene sediments...it's now actively cutting down...

The views weren't too bad either!

..and a little egret by the beck at Allonby.

Siskins, greenfinches and long-tailed tits

There was a right squall up on the bird feeders today ...the greenfinches were really pushing anything else off the sunflower seeds, while the long-tailed tits hung onto the fat balls and a pair of siskins fed on the niger seed ...in amongst the other species! In these lockdown times it is great to be able to watch the different species interacting and from the amount they are all guzzling they clearly appreciate the food! 

Hoarfrost patterns and textures

 Some more photographs, but this time  the detail from the weekend's walk at Campfield RSPB reserve.

Campfield RSPB Hoarfrost

A lovely walk out at Campfield Marsh RSPB reserve at the weekend ...no birds of any note as everything was frozen, but superb Narnia-like hoarfrost. 

Egyptian Geese

From Tom...On walking through Windsor Great Park I stopped off at the Cow Pond, where a pair of feral Egyptian Geese reside with their rather cute goslings. 

An introduced species, the Egyptian goose is now an established feral species in Britain with around 1,100 breeding pairs and a further 3,4000 wintering.

Windsor Great Park

Tom's first time in Windsor Great Park, walking from Bishopsgate to Snow Hill, before returning towards home past the Savill Garden. 

Ring necked parakeets

A blurry muntjac through a hedge, and a red deer from the Windsor Deer Park.

A solitary red kite

The Copper Horse statue and the Long Walk to Windsor Castle.

The Copper Horse and Long Walk to Windsor Castle.

The distant London skyline.

A 'brown' walk

With Lockdown, it was another 'round the block' walk from the house. As I have resurrected my Lockdown Diary, which I compiled during the first full lockdown, I set off to walk and try and think of a theme to focus my photography. At least in the previous lockdown I had signs of spring to look for, at present much of the landscape is brown; be it soil, mud or dead vegetation - so brown it had to be! Most things though were covered in frost or ice ...so an icy brown theme began to emmerge. 

'Round the block'.

My 'brown' compilation.

Fog rolling back to reveal the Solway plain.

Rooks in the sun,

Some colour! 

Hope! 

Runnymede and the River Thames

Some more details from Tom's walk out yesterday ...sunshine too!

Runnymede looking towards Cooper's Hill Slopes- the only relief on the landscape!

An old oxbow lake, Langham pond is a fantastic little site, although there was considerably less visible life compared to last time I saw it in the late summer. 

Langham Pond 

An unusual sight! This was the first buzzard I've seen down here since I moved in mid-September and their absence had always surprised me, however on seeing my first one I quickly realised why as it was mobbed by a pair of red kites- a more common sight! 

Buzzard and a red kite swiftly moving down to mob it. 

Red kites

River Thames

Long tailed tit