New Hythe

It was one of those nights and mornings that hits our wildlife hard. Just about everything is covered in a layer of ice, making it difficult for foraging birds to find food and try to stay warm. Just on the off chance that a hungry water vole might make an appearance I decided to spend a couple of hours at New Hythe but the water voles were obviously tucked up in a cosy nest hole somewhere (hopefully) as they were not around. Still a few hardy goldcrests, tits and siskins were attempting to find some food as the sun arose higher in the sky and finally started to thaw the ice.

Certainly this morning song thrushes seemed to be more confiding and this individual was trying to warm up and catch a few rays. It had fluffed its feathers up so much it looked as though it had swallowed a tennis ball, one of my favourite thrushes though.

This male shovelers is now well out of his eclipse plumage and looks very handsome.
As the sun was still rising the frost and ice still covered most of the undergrowth and shaded areas. The reedbed where sometimes a bittern lurks looked suitably frosty.

Old dead seed heads were coated in a layer of ice which sparkled in the weak sunlight.

And close up looked like a frosting of small diamonds.




Rabbits on ice is not something that I see very often but this beastie was finding some tasty morsals along the frozen banks of the ditch.

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