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.
This is the time of year when old man’s beard should be looking like whispy white hairs which give rise to its name.
But not, as here at the end of November, when snow is resting on all exposed parts of the plant.
The bridge where Smestow Valley railway walk crosses the canal, after the first light fall of snow.
This group of magpies were socialising together despite the hard weather just before Christmas.
The vivid colour of the leaves of this tree mark it out as non-native.
The tree was still brightening up its corner of West Park despite the frost and snow at the end of November.
This line of gulls was on the ridge of a snowy roof by the Staffs and Worcs canal at Castlecroft recently.
Video of sparrows, blue tits and a robin all using a seed feeder.
Putting some food out regularly helps many garden birds survive hard spells like the present one.
Pictures taken at the end of last November,the second one a few days after the first when more snow had fallen.
They are such wintry pictures that they seemed right for today.
Happy new year!
This heron was fishing on the towpath side of the Staffs and Worcs canal during the hard weather at the end of November.
Although it was only a few yards from Compton bridge, it did not appear to have been disturbed for some time.
The bird carried on fishing as I got to within perhaps ten yards of it taking pictures. Only when a large group of ducks came up to see if I had food for them did it depart, flying the shortest possible distance to continue its vigil on the other bank.
The winter remains are a mere skeleton of the vigorous plant from the summer.
Swans and cygnets, moorhens and mallards on the ice or the remaining open water on the Staffs and Worcs canal near Compton recently.
Little grebes have returned to the Staffs and Worcs canal like they do every winter.
Even in the hard period when most of the canal froze over, they managed to find enough open water to carry on fishing.
