Thursday 23 December 2010

Another Little Ice Sculpture

The small ice sculpture on the pond waterfall I filmed a while ago had melted within a couple of days but very recently a new one has taken its place. Even while we have had night temperatures down to -9C and days when it has remained below zero the birds have continued to use the waterfall for drinking and bathing. The whole of the sides of it are covered with ice formed while the birds have been splashing about.

Icy Pond Waterfall

In places some of the nearby plants are covered in a thick layer of ice where they have been splashed. Starlings are the main culprits in the 'splash it all over' scene as they don't mind how cold water is.

Icy Pond Waterfall 2

Most interesting, to me anyway, has been the formation of another little sculpture, once again hollow where the running water still flows.

Icy Pond Waterfall 3

Only a bit of video can show the effect:



On a technical note it is amazing how well modern methods can compress a video. The original clips as taken by the Lumix totalled 225MB but using  a format called H264 this was reduced to under 20MB but still gave a good clear result. It certainly saves on upload time.

7 comments:

  1. That really is a beautiful ice sculpture John.
    Always amazes me that no matter how cold, the birds still seem to enjoy a good splash around.

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  2. That last image is superb.......be tempted to back light it with some coloured bulbs.....sorry LCD's. Or whatever they call bulbs these days.

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  3. I am still amazed at the way ice builds up in the air Keith. The Starlings and Blackbirds seem to enjoy a good wash no matter what the weather.

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  4. Adrian: If the waterfall could be seen from a window I would seriously think of some low voltage lighting. LEDs would be ideal.

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  5. John I meant CEFs I'm Anorexic. Seriously I travel the country but your garden is a wonder. Keep posting. Have a good Christmas and may it soon end. It will always has.

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  6. Looks like an Art Deco sculpture, John, absolutely lovely.

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  7. It makes a change from icicles Wilma. ;)

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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