The recent cold snap produced some unusual ice formations around the Glenkens.
Dalry man Bob Peace came across two phenomena while out walking – hair ice and ice pancakes.
Hair ice appears on dead wood and, according to scientists, is an uncommon sight because it requires specific conditions to grow.
However, Bob told the News he comes across the beautiful candy floss-like curiosity frequently in local woods.
He said: “I think it’s quite fantastic – a lot of people will have seen it and don’t realise what it is. Folk might miss it because it looks like tissue paper or lichen.
“I’ve only ever seen it on dead deciduous wood branches – and nowhere other than on the floor.
“If you try and get close up the radiated heat from your hand destroys the ice filaments.
“That’s because they are so fine and highly temperature sensitive.
“Round here I would not class it as being rare.
“One good place is heading out of New Galloway along the side of the loch beside the golf course.”
Bob, a former local bobby and Galloway Mountain Rescue Team member, also noticed ice pancakes on a hike along the old railway line at Mossdale.
He said: “It was just before the Loch Skerrow halt near the bridge over the Grobdale Lane. About 20 metres from there it meets with the Airie Burn flowing out of the loch and junction of the two burns seemed to have created a bit of a swirl.
“In the eddy these ice pancakes had gathered – it was fascinating to see.
“It was -5C at Mossdale so it had been pretty cold.”
According to the Met Office website, ice pancakes are a “relatively rare” occurrence.
The website explained: “They are believed to form when foam on a river begins to freeze which begin to join together as they are sucked into an eddy and form into a circular shape as a result.
“As other bits of frozen foam and ice hit the forming disc they freeze to it and increase its size.”
Hair ice, meanwhile, can often form on the same piece of wood over several years.
Temperatures need to be below, but not significantly below, freezing and conditions must be moist.
Despite their delicate nature, the ice filaments can persist for days if conditions are right.
Critical to their formation is the presence of a fungus, Exidiopsis effusa, which through a process not fully understood, somehow stabilises the fine ice strands, allowing them to extend outwards.
