Another night of frost, with temperature falling to -4.7C at 5am (previous night's low was a mere -1.9C). Dictates of the working day suggested an earlier walk, setting off at 10:20, back in good time for a webinar starting at midday. Outside, a cloudless sky, temperature back above zero, a day with the right attributes for reaching out to the Sublime.
The ice had spread right across the ponds, what had survived yesterday's sunshine froze thicker, though still a long way from being able to support a human's weight.
The sudden cold snap caught the bird life unaware. Below: juvenile black-headed gulls in their first-winter plumage. For the first time in their lives, a solid layer of ice has come between them and their food in the water. Gulls, however, are opportunistic eaters and will eat seeds, worms and other land-based insects.
It's worse for the swans. They normally migrate before the ponds ice over. Once that happens, escape is impossible. If you've seen a swan taking off, you'll know it needs a long take-off run on open water to get airborne. This was possible yesterday, but not today. I saw this pair of young adult swans coping badly with the ice. Unlike ducks, whose feet have the ability to constrict blood flow at the ankles, allowing them to survive harsh North European winters, swans find walking on ice uncomfortable. The were waddling on the surface, at times it was cracking, at times supporting their weight.
Below: band of cold: you can see the metal ring on the female's left foot is causing her grief - she was continually and unsuccessfully trying to remove it - it must be extremely cold and uncomfortable.
Below: and here's old 2KC1 (note yellow ring on leg), Jeziorki's perennial visitor, minimising the discomfort by 50%.
Below: rotting vegetation at the bottom of the pond is sending up methane bubbles; here's one captured in ice, looking like amber in reverse.
Onward, away from the pond, across the track (the culvert beneath it is dry enough an high enough to go through if one stoops sufficiently; in the mud at the bottom I can see wild boar hoof prints!). On the Dawidy side of the tracks, I snap a pair of fallen birch trees.
And a quick look at the S7 extension works. A pair of excavators are removing soil from this heap and putting into tipper trucks. In the distance the new bridge, it's western end (right) awaiting the ramp that will be built up from this soil.
I return home along ul. Buszycka; the architecture and evergreens give the street a Mediterranean air when set against a background of a perfectly cloudless blue sky.
Got home for the webinar; by the time it was over, the sky had clouded over. Snow forecast for Saturday evening!
This time last year:
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