Newtown Waxwings 2

Warmer, sun and cloud 12.00-14.00. c.20 Waxwing at Coleg Powys feeding on hawthorn along the railway. Filling there crops and returning to perch and preen for several minutes in tall trees, some birds passing berries in courtship.

Llyn Coed y Dinas (Welshpool)

Overcast with brief bursts of sun and flurries of snow, -7C min, -2C max. The lake is frozen over apart from a small pool in front of the hide. Teal, wigeon, mallard and lapwing huddle along the shore of one of the islands. Occasionally the birds lift onto the lake, flushed by a buzzard or on a couple of occasions, a peregrine. Teal dabble for food in pockets of water as the shallows become free from ice in the rising daytime temperatures. The composition evolves, beginning with the lapwing, middle left, and grows outwards trying to balance the red heads of the male teal and lead the eye using counterpoint helped by the snowy bank. Towards dusk the temperatures plummet again and the paint becomes noticeably harder to move on the palette and by 16.00 it has completely frozen.