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Today was officially the  warmest February day recorded since 1998, with temperatures reaching 18 degrees in some parts of the UK. These are some of my views of this unseasonally beautiful day.

8.15am - Sunlit tulips

The sky was blue, birds were singing, the sun eye-squintingly bright and the sea calm and almost lake-like.

8.35am-View to Rhos-on-Sea showing the headland of the Little Orme & Bryn Euryn

8.37am-Calm, sunlit sea beneath a blue sky

8.38am-Turnstone foraging on barnacle-encrusted rocks

During my lunch break I spent a few minutes in the small wooded area at the bottom of Beach Road.

2pm-River Colwyn at the Beach Road end just before it runs into the sea

The river Colwyn flows through the original township of Colwyn. There are many brooks of the same name in Wales. It means ‘a young animal’ or ‘a pet dog’ and was probably used to describe the playful movement of the water.

Miniature daffodils flowering in the woodland garden

Carved wooden seat alongside the path

Lesser celandines open in the sunlight that filters through the bare tree branches

A wren was singing from a low branch close to the path, a chaffinch from higher up in a neighbouring tree and a robin from somewhere within the shrubbery. I caught sight of two long-tailed tits and a song thrush as it flew down onto the wall alongside the stream.

A blue tit low in a shrub beside the stream

I thought I’d missed the opportunity of a good look at the thrush, but as I was leaving there was another on the bank very close to the path that wasn’t bothered by me being there, even when I pointed the camera at it.

A beautifully marked thrush

Thrush from the front

A successful hunting blackbird

The views on the way home in the evening light were enhanced by the pink glow from the setting sun.

5.50pm - Evening view of Rhos-on-Sea

The tide was fully out and although the light was fading there were several people on the beach walking their dogs and a man probing the sand with a stick that I thought may have been searching for razor clams (?); he was too far away to see what he was putting into his bucket.

Man collecting razor clams

As I hoped, I arrived at the old pier at more or less the same time as the starlings.  The majority had already gathered into a large flock, a smaller flock arrived and blended seamlessly into the outer edges as they wheeled around across the sea then back to the pier. They settled quite quickly this evening, showering down like falling leaves to settle beneath the floor of the pier on either side of the structure.

5.50pm - Starlings arriving at the old pier to roost for the night

Starlings shape-shifting across the pink-tinged sky

Starlings flying out over the water

6pm-A final view of the rosy pink sunset

Tomorrow is predicted to be colder, ‘freshened’ by a NW wind …..