We had a lovely, frosty walk yesterday around Blackford Pond and into the Hermitage of Braid. I have never seen so many Mallards on Blackford Pond, many of them skating on the ice!
In amongst all the Mallards we were surprised and delighted to find a female Teal! She's the small duck further away than the female Mallards in the photo below, you can recognise her as a Teal, not just by her small size but by the lovely teal green flash in her wing.
Though the ice is making life obviously more difficult for the birds, the frozen pond did look lovely
The light in the Hermitage of Braid was beautiful
and we were happy to see a good number of snowdrops in full bloom
