Winter excursion to Häckeberga lake and castle

Häckeberga sjö och slott is all year around a lovely place to visit, but the rare occations when ice cover the lake and it is possible to walk on it pople really go there to skate, play hocky, fish and ski.

I have avoided placese with a lot of people when photographing this lovely lake,
just  to show the solitude around the castle.

Look at my photos to see a very special place in South of Sweden.

The main entrance Häckeberga Castle

Häckeberga slott 1873 Seen from the lake.

Sun on the gable wall.  From the ice.  🙂

Island in the lake

Beech forest along the edge of Lake Häckeberga

Two friends taking photo of me as I take photo of them 🙂

Lichen

Island in the lake just before sunset

People on the ice and snow in the air and sunset at the sky.

Sunset above Häckeberga

Birds from a cold winter

These are not pro-photos, just photos  caught by walking alon Ätran in the center of  Falkenberg
and only  for my amusement.

This little one sang so loud high above me and I’m told it is a:

Nuthatch – Nötväcka – Sitta europaea

Acrobatic flight of a hooded crow 🙂

Crows in different poses 🙂

One Corvus corone corone two Corvus corone cornix, i.e. a jackdawand  two crows   🙂

Female mandarin duck – Aix galereiculata

Mr Mallard

Just before touch-down 🙂

White-throated Dipper – Cinclus cinclus

White-throated Dipper

Mediterranean Gull – Ichthyaetus melanocephalus

Eurasian Coot

Eurasian Coot and Audouin’s Gull  Ichthyaetus audouinii

Great Cormorant  in blue shadows
Phalacrocorax carbo

Juvenile Herring Gull – Larus argentatus

Canada Goose – Branta canadensis

Whooper Swans – Cygnus cygnus

Wintermemories from Ätran

Memories from the river Ätran in January and February of 2010.
The coldest and most snowy winter we have had  in decades.

Natures own creations of frost and water!

Do you see the birds head in ice?

Looks a little like a dolphin to me 🙂

Snow &  ice-drops on rocks

More frozen dropps

Ice-Eoraptor, A big bird-like dinosaur 🙂

Cold and frozen  fish!

Sculptured by frost & the river

Ice-cover

Rings of frost

Winter decorations