For the New Year we returned to the Netherlands and stayed again with my brother-in-law. The temperatures were down to -7C so ice formed nicely and was thick enough to skate on. We took another walk through the Hitland polder.
There were loads of families out skating with skaters ranging from kids who could barely walk to the elderly.
There were plenty of water birds about such as these ducks which had found a small patch of unfrozen water. There were also hundreds of coots and geese in the polder and plenty of swans and herons.
There were plenty of contrasts:- the agricultural land and the fields, the frozen expanses of water and the open ones. What you do not realise is that the "ditches" between fields are actually over two metres deep.
I enjoyed the rime that was very visible on the vegetation and was several millimetres in size.
I enjoyed seeing older people out on the ice (though I cannot skate myself). Some such as the trio here were very skilled and synchronised. They young guy on the left was going at tremendous speed and I assume skated competitively.
As the light began to fade, few birds remained in the water - these swans and duck were exceptions. On the other side of the path (and across a short ditch) there was a field full of coots.
The Sun set just as we left Hitland.
