A Winter Walk - Part 2

After watching the subjects of the previous post, namely the robin and crow, I observed a pair of swans trying to deal with the strange environment they found themselves in: an ice covered loch.  It isn't Swan Lake on Ice, more Swan on Ice Lake.  There were some areas of open water but when the came up against the thin sheet ice, they had to improvise.  Forget Boaty McBoatface, this is the real deal. After some initial puzzling, we see the lead swan mount the ice and crash through to create a path. Enjoy.

A Winter Walk - Part 1

I love these cold, clear winter's mornings.  The air feels so clean and the warmth of the sun on your face cuts through the chill. And it's great for photography too. Here are a couple of snaps from a walk through my local nature reserve a couple of weeks ago.

The first is of a robin red-breast that I watched bobbing about between branches, eyeing up semi-frozen berries.

When the robin flew down to the ground, this crow swooped in and landed just past the robin, which made a sharp exit as the crow turned to see what happened to its quarry.

I know crows are omnivorous, they eat pretty much anything, but would the kill a smaller bird? Was the crow trying to get the robin to drop any morsels it may have or was it going in for the kill?

Fascinating to watch. And so were the swans, with their ice-breaking skills, see the next post for the video.