Icy Surprise

The sun and snow is still with us but unlike yesterday, today I just couldn't skip the shopping trip if I was to eat for the rest of the week!  Seeing has I had to go out, I couldn't resist driving to Shepherd Meadows for a walk along the River Blackwater up to the Sandhurst Balancing Pond and back before visiting the supermarket.

The balancing pond is used as temporary storage of excess storm water after periods of heavy rainfall, and no doubt will be serving its purpose as the snow melts. Today however it was largely frozen, and the various birds which use it were mainly sitting on the ice in the middle of the pond, and every now and then flew up and before landing again - some elegantly while others, like the Egyptian geese,  arrived with a flurry of feathers and skidded several feet across the ice.

The edge of the pond was some wonderful ice patterns, and I couldn;t resist another wintery triptych (extra)