Well winter has returned. The south of England is experiencing heavy snow falls (ok, moderate snow falls that the rest of the world would dismiss in a moment) and while the brunt is being borne by the Kent coast, we've seen a decent layer of snow cover Sussex.
Earlier this evening
Snow is deceptive, and it didn't actually feel too cold out there. That's partly due to the lack of wind, but despite that my hands eventually told me it was too cold to stay outside. I'd been watching in vain for a fox to appear. And it did, but only after I'd returned to the warmth of the house :insane: And just in case you're interested, I take reasonable care to protect the camera from the snow. Water is not a digital camera's friend, so protecting equipment is essential. That's not to say that a brief flurry will kill a camera, but some basic precautions are sensible. In this instance these amounted to a large freezer bag with a hole cut out for the lens to peek through, and a small cut in the top to allow the flash unit to sit on its shoe. The flash unit had another small bag draped over it.
Yesterday was dry, and quite bright in the morning which is when I took this shot of a dunnock in the garden.
The light had drifted away by the afternoon. I did pop down to Rottingdean to see if the fulmars were still about. They were, but not in the same numbers as on previous weekends, and far fewer were skimming the cliffs. It was one of my quieter trips down there for a while, but as I was leaving I glimpsed a small flock of ringed plovers hugging the shore line.
More snow is forecast for tomorrow, but I would expect most of it to clear by Tuesday or Wednesday. As I said at the beginning, the amount of snow wouldn't cause any loss of sleep in Eastern Europe or North America, but it's our snow (actually, the winds are reported to be coming in from Russia, so does that make it Russian snow?) and it's more than enough to cause major transport disruption. We're simply not equipped to deal with it.
Camera note: snow scene photgraphed with a (well wrapped) EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens. The plovers and dunnock were caught with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
Words
1 Feb 2009They've probably forgotten to do the roads out of here as well… all of which are steep hills. Mind you, I didn't remember to grit our drive which is perilously steep when it's icy.
SittingFox
1 Feb 2009Very nice shot of the plovers :up: Nice picture of the dunnock too, actually. I always seem to have problems getting them to come out of the shadows!
Fascinatingly, despite the fact that the snow was widely forecast, the council forgot to grit the main road through my village again :insane: There's about 8cm on the ground up here. I grimly await the discovery of how the trains are coping tomorrow…
Flying Red Fox Blog
2 Feb 2009Lovelly photos! Would be so nice to have a fox suddenly sit on the pergola in the snow. 😀
We have lots of snow here in West sussex too Words, i think Gatwick has partly closed and Heathrow too!
Ukwildlife
2 Feb 2009Nice photos. Im stuck in Kent in this snow! Its great how just 3cm of snow can shut down transport in the South East!
Words
2 Feb 2009Looks like work has closed for the day as well. The A27 is mainly shut, and so are all our car parks. With no public transport running either, that's fairly conclusive.
Words
2 Feb 2009Mark, oh how I would love a fox to come and pose in all that snow! Just taken a look outside and it's as thick a covering as I can remember.
Words
2 Feb 2009Neil, more snow forecast for later (and it's still falling now). Trains and buses have been suspended round these parts. Have yet to see a car move anywhere up here :smurf: