Our friend from South Wales, Mike Davies, sends these photos. "yes we are still having snow, although we escaped relatively better than England, here in the south it was more on higher ground as you see in my picture of the Brecon Beacons taken new years eve, and new years day we had a fall in the evening,
temps -2c to -4c brrrrrrrr.
Here's one worth showing
Seal tackles Atlantic salmon in river
This caught me by surprise. In all my years I have never seen a seal in the River Neath in Neath before near the town centre.and esp with an Atlantic salmon in his mouth, this was a shot in a million, I was walking along the the river bank in the town centre and could see a frenzy of gulls and heron attacking the water, I then noticed what I thought a black log bobbing on the surface, then it suddenly went under the water, only to find that it came up about 3ft out of the water with the largest salmon I have seen in these inland waters.
This one had a struggle to eat the fish, the seal, a large grey male approx 4ft in length then swam out with the out going tide. I was very lucky to have captured these shots.
You'd normally expect to witness this kind of scene out in the ocean so I wonder what has prompted this seal to venture so far up stream?
Perhaps he's discovered that there are easier and better pickings to be had in the river upstream, especially if the salmon are spawning which normally occurs between Oct-Dec but can be as late as February in larger rivers. My theory is that the salmon came in from the Atlantic ocean then into the Bristol channel, and then up the river Neath where the salmon would spawn, the seal followed the salmon until he could capture his large catch in a narrow part of the river. An amazing tale and the photos prove that it actually took place.
Thanks Mike!