common_nature | Nature diary

It started snowing yesterday, and now there's about 5 cm of snow, an amount that is very rare here. I went for a walk to see the beach, because it looks so cool when it's covered in snow. To my surprise, there was even ice on the water! A fragile crust of little floes had formed and seemed to slow down the movement of the waves as they licked the snow away from the breakwater bit by bit.

At first, I didn't hear any bird calls. I did see a few sanderlings darting around, some big birds (probably black-backed gulls) hovering over the sea, and a huge swarm of smaller birds, but they were all far away. I was about to leave when suddenly an impressive formation of geese appeared in the sky. My birding app identified them as barnacle geese. Then the app recorded some more calls, including one from a dunling, a bird I had never seen or heard before.

The snow and the greyish sky skewed my perspective in interesting ways, so that it looked like there were mountains growing out of the sea near the horizon, or like there was a huge wave rolling towards the beach. It felt surreal and a little eerie.

North Sea beach with snow and ice

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cmcmck

It seems much of Europe has had snow- we're in Shropshire in the UK and we also have a good coating although it's less rare here.

Frozen seas and lakes are more unusual though.

signoftea

We only had rain all winter, but last week it suddenly got cold and started snowing. I also heard there has been heavy snowfall in other parts of Europe, too.

bookscorpion

Seeing ice on the sea is always so cool, and I really like the way the water moves under it

I had never seen ice on the sea here before! It looked really impressive.

pauraque

Beautiful. We get a lot of snow here (northeast USA) but I never get tired of seeing the movement of the water under broken ice.

The movement of the waves under broken ice really gave me an impression of how powerful the sea is!

semielliptical

Lovely! We get snow regularly where I live but I've never seen ice on the sea like that.

Thanks! Winter landscapes are always pretty, and the beach in the winter is something special.

ysabetwordsmith

>>To my surprise, there was even ice on the water! A fragile crust of little floes had formed and seemed to slow down the movement of the waves as they licked the snow away from the breakwater bit by bit.<<

If you look along shorelines and piers, you can often see little shelves of ice sticking out. I think they're cool.

>>My birding app identified them as barnacle geese.<<

They sound like barking.

>>The snow and the greyish sky skewed my perspective in interesting ways, so that it looked like there were mountains growing out of the sea near the horizon, or like there was a huge wave rolling towards the beach. It felt surreal and a little eerie.<<

So pretty! Thank you for sharing.