Andrew Trundlewagon's photos

A male cardinal in the garden.

A tiny Chickadee feeding on ice. They are small but tough, staying around all year no matter how cold it gets.

Objects in a freezing pond.

Kicked to the kerb.

Two rather wet blue jays in the snow. At first, I thought this was a mother feeding a youngster, but that didn't seem quite right as the offspring leave the nest in late spring. It turns out that blue jays mate for life and cement their relationship by offering their partners gifts, usually of food. I suspect that is what is happening here.

A hawk in winter.

Winter night.

A male cardinal visiting the garden. A welcome splash of colour in the dark days of winter.

Assembly. (St. Bruno, near Montreal).

Winter morning, Brighton Seafront.

Leeds Castle in Kent, UK.

A temporary seasonal display, the 'Cercle Polaire", Place Ville Marie, Montreal with polar bears and penguins (although no real polar bear has come near a penguin except in a zoo).

Two forms of chalcedony; the top rock is mammillated chalcedony I found on a building site in Aylesbury in the UK. The white patina on the core is intriguing as it changes colour with the weather. When it is humid it becomes bluer, but it is white when the weather is dry. I have not been able to learn the chemistry behind this. The lower stone is banded agate, which is also a kind of chalcedony and which I bought in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Ok I got up here, now how do I get down? A tightrope walker from the local Christmas market.

Hawthorn trees laden with dark red berries, South Downs, Sussex. Guess which way the wind blows? "........when, like an eyelid's soundless blink, The dewfall-hawk comes crossing the shades to alight Upon the wind-warped upland thorn, a gazer may think, "To him this must have been a familiar sight." (Thomas Hardy, Afterwards),

Witch hazel; unusual in flowering much later in the year (November) than other plants when everything else is dormant. The brown structure is a seed capsule from the previous year. The seeds are shot out of the capsule and can be propelled over many metres from the parent.

A stormy sunset on Brighton seafront.

A well-hidden toad in the leaf litter.