David

Moorhen standing on the ice of a frozen section of the Staffs and Worcs canal.

This tiny fungus grows on rotting wood – often on tree stumps, as here. It is named for its supposed resemblance to the wick of a candle which has been snuffed out.

An experiment in black and white. Pictures taken by the (mostly) frozen Birmingham canal as it drops from the Black Country plateau towards Aldersley Junction. Above is the rubbish incineration plant.

Next is Broad Street basin from Broad Street. Below is the railway viaduct across the canal and Stafford Road.

The house whose roof is pictured is on a normally fairly busy minor road. Wood pigeons and magpies are normally the dominant birds perched on roofs. But this was mid-morning on New Year’s Day, and very few motorists were about yet.

These spiders’ webs were anchored in the seemingly dead stems of an ivy a few days ago. They were showing their form clearly because of the hoar frost which had formed on them.

A view on a calm and overcast New Year’s Day.

The swan above is one of a pair which spent the cold spell near the Windmill Lane bridge on the Staffs and Worcs canal, and had what was obviously a frequently met expectation of being fed.

The birds in the other pictures were on the boating lake at West Park, which stayed partially frozen even in the temporary thaw around the new year.

A hand-held camera zoomed in as closely as possible in poor light conditions means there is some camera shake even though the bird is still just a splash of colour in the centre of the picture. But even on an overcast New Year’s Day the vivid colours were unmistakable.

More on the heron whose patch is around Compton bridge. This time it was fishing from the private mooring which can be seen from the pavement on the bridge (this picture, however, was taken from the towpath).

These trees in and around the Smestow valley were pictured a few days before Christmas

The snow and the overcast sky have drained the images of almost all colour.