Walking on water?

We managed to take the dogs out for a good walk to Ferry Meadows this morning . Even though it was grey and gloomy, with persistent mizzle, it was good to get out. Although the thaw has melted away all the snow and ice on the land, there's still a layer of ice over most of the lake area, but this now has a thin layer of water over the top.

Quite a few of the geese and gulls were standing on the ice, but at first sight it looked as though they were standing on water. This particular gull caught my eye, because it was standing quite alone, away from the rest of the birds - looking rather lost in a sea of icy water.

On the way back to the car I was quite surprised to see a hazel catkin almost fully out. I think it must be jumping the gun a bit as most of the other hazels still have very tiny catkins. An image of it can be seen here.