Fo was still zonked with the bug today , Miles was zapped out from an excess of skateboarding last night at RKade in Redcar in a -7c temperature and he is still getting over a series of bad colds so he was wasted this morning , Clifford was quite happy to stay in , wimpy doggy, so I went out on my ownsome lonesome again for a four mile walk around Durham. Usual Shincliffe and back route but since a few days ago the River Wear had completely frozen in places and mostly frozen in the rest . I saw five , yes five , Goosanders today the usual three who've been there a while but two much bigger ones had turned up just downstream from Elvet bridge . These were not shy and were quite happy to be observed from 10 metres away although I walked slowly and didn't stop because I knew that could spook them . Why so many Goosanders? The obvious answer is that most of the lakes and ponds in Durham County are frozen over , big Rivers like the Wear are freezing over so fish eating divers like Goosanders are being concentrated in the clear water areas. Cormorants weren't there at all except for one because they can shove off to the coast where there is no ice but lots of fish. Way to go : brains working today!

On the River wear where it was completely frozen there were 45 degree angled lines in the ice highlighted by the snow on them and how they got there I've yet to conjecture. The river got frozen over by a two processes ; freezing from the edges ; and bits off ice that had broken off from river ice upstream getting stuck around those edges and then hey presto the whole river is blocked . Further downstream I heard a weird cracking sound I'd never heard before and that was the sound of metre square patches of ice floating down channels of fast water then crashing into frozen parts of the river . Very exciting.

As I walked into town a snowstorm came over and happily for me there was a Starbucks nearby so I sought refuge in there . I missed the family today because this was the second time this week they couldn't make it and there were many exciting and interesting things to see which I know they would like . Still , Fo is on the mend and the lads want to sledge in Durham so hopefully we will get a family afernoon out soon. Nice afternoon out in a somber snowy Durham.