W-wa Jeziorki: Yo-yo winter

Monday 1 February 2021

Yo-yo winter

A few days of very cold weather, snow, then thaw, then the frost returns with more snow, then another thaw and so on. From -13C to +5C and rain then back to -5C.

Warsaw has just enjoyed two beautiful blue-sky days of snow and frost, touching the sublime. Some photos then...

Below: heading up towards the footpath to the ponds, a very un-Ealing sight. And a Belarusian Airlines Boeing 737 coming into land.

Below: my tracks over the frozen middle pond. With motor vehicles taking to the ice - there's no longer any risk for walkers.

Below: the path between the ponds looking north; they are all progressively being choked by reeds.

Left: correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is a juvenile common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), perched (on one foot) on the overhead power line above the track between W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Jeziorki, the smaller of the two species of birds of prey around here, the other being the larger marsh harrier. The kestrel was not expending energy hovering on high looking for voles or field mice - the cable gives a good enough vantage point - its head can swivel right round.

Below: Sierra Da Vidy, between Jeziorki and Dawidy Bankowe. Not so much 7,000m high, nearer seven metres high, the hill of soil that will be used for earthworks on either side of the S7 extension. I espy two foxes; there are plenty of paw prints around, and tracks of hares. Will the wildlife move on once the S7 is buzzing with traffic?