Thursday 21 December 2017

Jeziorki swans and bonus shots

The shortest day. Although the sunset is now getting later, so is sunrise, which will won't start appearing over the horizon any earlier until 3 January. Not much snow compared to Decembers past, and the ice is encroaching the ponds. Below: the swan family, the five surviving cygnets and their parents; soon they'll be having to fly away to find ice-free water.


Hold on - who's this paddling around the middle pond (below)? There were five cygnets with their folks in the southernmost pond - so is this the missing sibling - or has this cygnet flown in from somewhere else, where the water's already frozen?


Below: the photo I'd wished I'd taken but didn't. When I left for London earlier this month, I lent my neighbour Tomek my Nikon  CoolPix P900, and he captured this marvellous picture of a parent swan giving one of its cygnets flying lessons. Perfect composition, focus and exposure.


The new gated level crossings at Nowa Iwiczna and W-wa Dawidy (below) were activated while I was in London last week. Interesting little barrier for pedestrians mounted (to left of frame) for passengers on the 'up' platform. Light dusting of snow, -1C, Tuesday evening. Incidentally, picking up on Ian Wilcock's comment earlier about the premature lowering of the barriers - I timed this, and it was exactly three minutes between the barriers going down and my train town reaching the level crossing. About two minutes too long!


Below: be shocked, Warsaw, be shocked. Monday morning, 18 December, and the PM2.5 particulate concentration is five times higher than the maximum allowable level, while PM10 particulates were three times higher. The result - yellow smog sitting on top of us, the top of Palace of Culture just about clear of it.


Below: final bonus shot - flying in to Warsaw through the fog (smog not too bad this morning), Theresa May and half her government on the RAF A330 Voyager.


This time two years ago:
A conspiracy to celebrate

This three years ago:
The Mythos and the Logos in Russia

This time four years ago:
Going mobile - I get a smartofon

This time five years ago:
The end was meant to end today (remember?)

This time six years ago:
First snow - but proper snow?

The time seven years ago: 
Dense, wet, rush hour snow

This time eight years ago:
Evening photography, Powiśle

This time nine years ago:
The shortest day of the year

This time ten years ago:
Bye bye borders - Poland joins Schengen

2 comments:

Ian said...

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Michael Dembinski said...

@ Ian Wilcock

And the same to you! Thanks for following the blog, best (only) source of English-language stuff about our area!