Silvery rain

A couple of days later, when the sun emerges, it is glinting and glittering wherever you turn, and the upper branches of a grey willow (Salix cinerea) are shimmering with all the colours of a rainbow. The morning sun is low behind the eastern forest, Østerskov, creating the illusion that the forest is on fire.

If this ice crust is not going to melt soon, the few birds that are still present on the island will face a hard time. It takes a lot of extra effort to get hold of seeds, fruits, or insects, when you first have to break this armour of ice. A fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) is sitting in a dog rose (Rosa canina), its eyes closed. It has just swallowed a frozen rose hip, and, presumably, it will use almost as much energy to thaw the fruit, as it gets out of it. But rose hips seem to be everyday fare for the fieldfares, judging from their excreta, which pile up at their drinking place – a tiny spring on the northern shore, which is not frozen.

A blackbird (Turdus merula) had already died, lying on its back, frozen stiff, rime covering its feathers.