Arctic Blast

While the UK was wracked by the winter storms of January I was over in Florida, indeed in the Keys - as far south as Florida goes. You lucky b*+$%£r I hear you cry. Well not quite.

Instead of this

we had this.

Instead of this we had this.

Instead of this we had this (yes, the wind was blowing from the right of the frame).

Okay, let's be honest we had all of the pictures above, but we had the same weather front as the UK, as evidenced by the TV headlines below. Key West had it's coldest recorded temperature ever (admittedly only 5C, but when you've packed for the beach you end up wearing most of your clothes!). They referred to it everywhere as THE ARCTIC BLAST.

The fish were dying in the sea, and not just the little ones....

also nurse shark, barracuda, bonefish.

It was so unexpected, and sad. Mind you the herons had a grand old time.

Anyway, some pictures will follow when I've finished sorting through the few thousand snaps, but here are a few from the tail end of 2009 that never got posted, including a rather timid bittern. My finger hovered over the camera on a hair trigger as the swans approached, but it came to nothing in the end.