Category: David

As the open water disappeared before Christmas, ducks like this one got even more determined than usual to pester passers-by for food.

Pictures taken after the heavy snowfall before Christmas.

The top two pictures were taken in the Barley Field in the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve. The first picture looks towards the trees of Tettenhall ridge over the trees lining the railway walk.

This was taken facing pretty much the opposite direction.

Looking up towards the former railway from the footpath leading to the canal.

Finally a view over the Staffs and Worcs canal, which was well on the way to freezing over.

Compton lock when the trees and towpath were covered with the heavy hoar frost early in December.

Two, or perhaps even three, types of lichen are growing on this branch of a sloe bush. The most leafy of them had a cap of recently fallen snow.

A view along the railway walk with the snow early in December, all looking like it has been designed as a tunnel of trees.

Another view from early December, with the bare trees of Tettenhall ridge looking very strange in the snowy landscape.

These pictures were taken some days after the one above, when most of the snow had disappeared after a brief thaw, then everything got covered in a thick layer of hoar frost when it refroze.

An isolated hawthorn reflected in the freezing Staffs and Worcs canal.

More from the late November/early December wintry spell. Most of the apples from this tree had fallen and were hidden under the blanket of snow.

After the first snowfall at the end of November, a breeze was moving the branches of this small larch in West Park just enough for a gentle blur on this hand-held shot.

Early (above) and later (below) in the late November/early December cold spell.

This heron is probably the same one pictured in the post on New Year’s Eve.

It was (again) staying on the towpath bank of the canal very near to Compton bridge.

A leading light in the Smestow Valley Bird Group suggested that someone may be feeding it in this hard weather.