26th January 2013, Playing in the snow

Heavy snowfall was forecasted by late Friday afternoon, when I had reached home from work there was no sign, during my usual hour in the pub the concensus was that the forecasters had got it wrong again as barely a flake of snow could be seen.

Wrong, wrong and wrong again!! By late Friday night the snow had arrived, later than expected and much heavier than was really welcome, rain was forecasted for Saturday afternoon so we were up and ready for a walk quite early.

Heading up through the fields near home and taking a look back...

The first couple of fields are popular with dog walkers, hence the number of prints. Looking across to Nab End which is part of Rombalds Moor the view was stunning..

As we climbed the number of human and dog prints diminished, this looked as though a fox had wandered through..

Another look back, this time over untrodden snow..

And another look over to Nab End...

Ruins of Tar Topping are near the top of the hill..

Not much wildlife to see but the sunny blue skies were more than pleasant, welly clad feet were dry and though the walking was not easy it was a real pleasure to be out.

The hardy hill sheep don't worry too much about a fall of snow, supplementary feed is out but they forage quite happily in most weather.

I had an idea where we might find some deep and unwalked snow and we took a short walk on a tarmac lane before a turning back down towards the valley...

I was sent ahead as depth tester! Nothing too scary though and we found more fox tracks which we followed, the tracks were interspersed with what appeared to be pounce marks, foxes will catch a scent of a vole or mouse moving beneath the snow..

The warmth was evident in this small but free flowing field stream as it gurgled its way downhill..

As we lost height some wildlife began to appear, first a coal tit..

Then a meadow pipit which took to the air as I composed my shot and pressed the shutter release..ah well nearly!!

We descended through the hamlet of Kildwick Grange and took a field path down to the canal...no kingfishers on here today!

We carried straight on through the gate over the bridge in the hope that the river may yield more sightings...this overflow pond certainly wouldn't!

A chirpy walltop robin caught my eye...and stayed long enough for a photograph..

Poking the camera through a hedge does not often result in a great photograph, this meadow pipit is no better than I expected:-)

Crossing the canal again on our way home disclosed its still well frozen state..

A redwing provided another opportunity, a shame I could get the angle to show the colours better..

We had made an omission in our kit for the day, sunglasses! Both of us were suffering with headaches, more than likely from the reflected glare in the bright sun. As we neared home I suffered a slip, wellington boots are great for keeping dry but the grips on mine leave a lot to be desired, two pirouhettes might have won me approbation from judges but it wasn't nice.

After lunch at home I set out again, no discomfort from the slip at this point, just a short walk down the other side of town to see if I could discover more wildlife.

Success nearly straightaway as a lapwing scavenged for food in a field.

The view westwards was splendid with the valley under a cloak of snow..

Another lapwing posed happily for me:-)

I was now starting to have back pain, undoubtedly the result of my slip and I decided to head back to town and the warmth of the pub!!

A grooming swan always warrants attention though...

And the many splendoured starling too..

A day of inactivity normally lets my back settle down, normal service will be resumed shortly:-))