Tree silhouettes in winter

Every autumn, as the last leaf falls, I've had good intentions of recording a set of images of the characteristic silhouettes of different tree species in winter. They are all distinctive and beautiful in their various ways.

This winter I finally made a start but I hadn't bargained on how difficult it would be to find good isolated examples of trees silhouetted again a clear sky background, so progress has been slow. Anyway, here are a few, that I hope to add to before bud burst begins in a few weeks' time.  

Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus. Only the tree on the left has had enough space to develop symmetrical growth; the two on the right have got in each other's way.

Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum. Those almost horizontal heavy lower limbs are characteristic; in the rare absence of grazing animals they'll sweep almost down to the ground and are usually the first to be shed from old trees in gales.

Ash Fraxinus excelsior. The upward sweep of the rather thick twigs is characteristic.

Durmast oak Quercus petraea

The sweet chestnut that refuses to die....

Auckland park, in Bishop Auckland, has an interesting collection of old trees and these venerable sweet chestnuts are amongst the finest.

Some, like this one, are in the prime of life and produced a very heavy crop of chestnuts this year. 

There are four mature trees that were planted in a line beside a small stream. The ground under them is covered in a thick layer of their serrated leaves, spiny fruit husks and nuts that will keep the squirrels well fed for weeks to come.

The low-angle late autumn sunshine this morning showed off their fissured bark beautifully. 

One of the four has been dying for the thirty five years that I've known it. It has shed most of its branches, much of its bark, has been attacked by wood boring beetles and fungi .....

... and yet every year it sprouts new growth, refusing to die. There could be decades of life left in it yet, unless the roots finally rot and it's blown over by a gale and ......

...........that would be a pity, because I'd really miss this gnarled old trunk. It's one of the park's characters.