Thursday 3 December 2009

First Frost.

We've had a lot of wet and windy weather here in recent weeks, so when on Wednesday morning, the sun was struggling to peak though, I decided to sneak out for an hour at my local Rodden Reserve.It was a lovely crisp frosty morning, the first that I've noticed for this winter season. I've broken this up into three posts. This first is a mish mash of, to be honest, anything I could get my lens onto! The next post will show the cold icy tones around the reserve and in contrast, the last post will show the warm winter sun tones I came across as I walked around.After the mildness of the winter so far, I think these Black-headed and Lesser Black backed Gulls were surprised to be standing on ice where they would normally been taking a morning bath! Despite several scans through these Gulls, I didn't manage to find the adult Mediterranean Gull that I found here a few days earlier. That was only the second sighting of this lovely white winged gull at this reserve.Now that the Purple Loosetrife has died down to a lovely golden brown around the edge of the lake, it's possible to get some nice views through the foliage across the lake. It was fun to try and sneak up on the local Grey Heron. This still isn't very close, but it's better than I usually manage here. He's looking left and then right, obviously looking for traffic before crossing the pond! (-:
As I was just standing here, listening to the distinctive sad call of the Siskin flying overhead, I noticed that the sun had come out and was shining at the end of the path. I'm not sure I captured it very well in this photo as the sky has whitened out badly, but it felt magical being there.Luckily the sun stayed out for a while and glistened beautifully on the frosty grass and foliage around me.
There was a touch of mist across the water which added to the peaceful feeling walking around that morning.For some reason, I was fascinated by the frosty bridge, as you can see by the next three photos! Please remember that I hadn't been out 'photogrophising' for a while, so had been getting stir crazy! (-:

The sun was slightly in the way for this photo, but I liked the soft and serene reflection over the lake.More from Rodden Reserve in my next post.

10 comments:

Eve said...

OH I LOVE THE FROSTY RAIL!!! This is a great post Jenny. I see the sun at the end of the trail and I love that safty concerned heron! We had a big frost just the other morning too...brrrrrr!

Anonymous said...

Hi Jen,
You did a proper job on the frosty grass and sunshine and the macro frost is really good. I did really like the two Heron shots though.

Mosura said...

Jack Frost doesn't visit my place but I did get to know his cousin Jack McFrost very well when I was in Scotland. The first rays of sun on a frosty day can make for some beautiful scenes as you've shown here. I like that close up of the ice crystals on the bridge!

Anonymous said...

Delightful!

Rural Rambler said...

Oh the weather outside is frosty! Beautiful frosty captures Jenny. The frosted grass is just very pretty. I like the series of the heron. The path, I felt like I was there. It looks very cold but peaceful.

Chris said...

Hi Jenny,
Superb series! So we are not the only one to be in negative temperatures nowadays ;-) I love the frost shots, especially the rail!

Kelly said...

...oh boy.....ice forming on the water already. I'm waiting for our first major cold snap. I love your frosty bridge as well. I can see why your were so enamored. Everything is beautiful...

Mary said...

I love all these moody scenes. The frost and the sun were really busy making beauty everywhere. That light on the end of the path...very well done! Those gulls are so pretty and that one tall one really stands out from the rest. I like the grasses and the frost! Wonderful!

Jenny said...

Glad you liked the rail Evie! It seems to have been popular! (-: I can't believe you're having hard weather down there in sunny Alabama! That's not fair!

Hi Roy, it was a beautiful morning, all the more so cos I hadn't been able to get out for a nice walk for a while!

Hi Alan, I'm kind of surprised that you don't get frost in Tassie! Do you miss it? (-:

Hi Steve, glad you enjoyed it.

Hi Pix, it was a lovely peaceful morning with no one else there. Perfecto!

Hi Chris, we are hardly in your league though! (-: I'm looking forward to some mega frosty posts from you shortly. (-:

Hi Kelly, I'm sure you wont be far behind with some frosty weather. I love it cold and crisp and sunny.

Hi Sharon, I'm glad you think so too. That hours walk made my day!

Hi Mary, glad you enjoyed it, you should like the next post too. That larger gull was the Lesser Black backed gull.

Quiet Paths said...

What a great place for a stroll. Do the herons stay there all winter? I like the frosty photos too. You should see what happened here last night; lots of snoooow.