Former warehouses backing onto the Birmingham canal near Horseley Fields. Pictured within minutes of each other. The one building was by an unfrozen stretch of the canal; the other, just around a corner, by a stretch where the ice cover was still all but complete.
Footprints left by a grey squirrel in a thin layer of snow. More on the bird prints which are also there in a couple of days.
Another grab shot with a hand-held camera.
Fox footprints in snow several inches deep.
A grab shot with a hand-held camera on a dismal day.
This giant hogweed was on the snowy bank of the frozen Staffs and Worcs canal near Castlecroft.
The larches are the trees behind Compton lock, where this heron can often be found on the lookout. These pictures were taken on Boxing Day, when the trees were weighed down with snow and ice.
Hazel catkins encased in ice.
This snowdrop was coming into bloom yesterday by Kinver church.
Swans on the partially frozen Staffs and Worcs canal at Castlecroft (above) and Compton (below).
This series of pictures of black-poplar catkins was taken yesterday.
My reference sources, some 20-30 years old, give the flowering season as March/April.
More from the experiment in black and white. This is Autherley Junction, where the Shropshire Union canal joins the Staffs and Worcs.
Taken yards from the previous picture, but turning round to face to where the Shropshire Union heads off towards Cheshire.
These two are at Aldersley Junction, where the Birmingham canal network meets the Staffs and Worcs.
