... it was time to head for Tindale Tarn ... a pair of Ravens cronked as they flew low over the frozen slopes of White Tortie ...
... recent rains had created a dramatic rise in water level and then the temperature dropped suddenly ...
... the tarn was still in flood with neither island visible above the glassy surface ...
the ice in the wood by the screen created lovely visual effects ...
... the path was only just passable and my feet were in water as I sat on the bench and looked out across the tarn ...
... the previous day's water level was marked by a strange shelf of ice on the fence and would have covered the bench where I sat ...
... a female Goldeneye was diving repeatedly ...
... and its progress under water could be tracked by the disturbance on the otherwise flat surface ...
... a Mute Swan was upending in the shallows by the reed bed ...
... while out in the middle Tufted Ducks and Coot behaved in a much more relaxed way ...
... as the blue sky and the sunlit Tarn Rigg reflected beautifully on the water ...
... a Dipper flopped into the shallows of the south side of the tarn among the feeding Mallard and Teal and surfaced occasionally before disappearing among the vegetation ...
... a female Black Grouse fed among the tree tubes in Bruthwaite ...
... even in the mid-day sun Stagsike remained completely shaded ...
... and past Stagsike a female Stonechat perched briefly ...
... the low winter sun reached just one corned of a mown field at Howgill and provided feeding opportunities in the thawed ground for a group of thrushes ...
... an uncharacteristically sociable Mistle Thrush fed peacably by Blackbirds and a few Filedfares ...
... further along the Gairs Track a Woodcock burst out of the dead bracken, jinking as it went and headed off across the quarry ...
... Grey Herons were constantly on the move as they searched the frozed terrain for food but stood for short periods of time before moving on ...
... by the Hare Beck a pair of Stonechats perched on patches of rushes ...
... and then on mole hills ...
... a male Kestrel perched distantly, looking positively rufous, illuminated by the setting sun ...
... and that final glow made its mark on the top of Cold Fell as the rest of the landscape fell into near-darkness ...
... a single Starling left it late to go to roost as it perched on wires at Forest Head, looking this way and that as Starlings are wont to do ...
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