A Smile In The Sky

I went out this morning to buy some new bird seed and peanuts - both of which have proved very popular in the garden this afternoon. Robins, sparrows, chaffinch, long tailed tit, blue tit and something I haven't been able to identify! Seems it doesn't take long for word of a new food supply to get around.

This afternoon on our walk I spotted a couple of atmospheric phenomena which were quite interesting. First of all I saw a sundog (well at least the right hand side of it) - a bright rainbow coloured patch in the clouds. I didn't have my camera out at the time and it wasn't practical to get it out! I have seen these before and knew they were caused by sun shining through ice crystals in the high clouds, so I was on the look out for it again.

Whilst looking I spotted this - an upside down 'rainbow' directly overhead, so I grabbed my camera and took a couple of shots before it disappeared, it was fading quite fast.

Good old uncle Google tells me that it is a circumzenithal arc. Again caused by light diffraction through ice crystals it is actually quite a rare occurrence in the UK.