Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts

2011-10-17

My Watery World - Falsterbo

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NF Photo 111003, Falsterbo Lighthouse in morning mist
NF Photo 111004 view from the Lighthouse Tower

NF Photo 111004 Ducks at the sand-reef
Det här var min lilla värld för några dagar i början av oktober. Allt från kall dimma till solsken fick vi uppleva.
This was my world for a few days in the beginning of oct. We had everything from cold heavy mist to summer sunshine.
More about Falsterbo  here:
Falsterbo on NF Photo

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2011-07-17

Malta captive birds

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 Probably Green-winged Amazon

Scarlet Macaw, a Costa Rican bird

unknown Macaw

unknown Macaw
All photos 110425 in Mediterraneo Park, Malta.

These guys and gals were the artists in a birdshow I visited in Malta last spring.

Midweek Blues

Mer om CR här:
Costa Rica Birdblogg

More on Malta here:
Malta at NatureFootstep

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Location: Costa Rica

2011-07-02

Storulvån 110616 Storulvåfjället

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Click to enlarge, All photos NF Photo 110616 on Storulvåfjället

Storulvån 110616 Storulvån
Today I woke up at 6. A bit too early so I stayed in bed for a while. Then I dressed and went out to find the Bluethroat again. And so I did. And got some good shots at it. I think I also managed to get some video too, but I have to check that out.
At breakfast I heard that a Redtail was singing outside so I got back for the camera and took some shot of it too.

At 8.45 we gathered outside and started the hike. We crossed the river and went up the hills.

It was sunny and rather warm. The hike turned out to be rather difficult. But that was expected.
After a while we came to a spot with snow. And there was two European golden plover (ljungpipare). It started out good. :) The shot to the left shows me with all the gear I carry. It is quite heavy. But so far I manage. That point was the highest point we were at.



Then some of the guys found a Dotterel (fjällpipare)  and  close to that one I found a Rock Ptarmigan (fjällripa).  But after that it was not much birds. On the other hand there was a lot of nice tiny mountain/alpine flowers up there. When we were rather high up we took a break and our first coffee. Then we continued and it had gotten cloudy and started to rain. We walked throu a kind of marsh land, very wet but not so hard to walk on. There were mosses and lichens without the slippery mud beneath.

During the day I got some new spices. Long-tailed Skua (Fjällabb), Ring Ouzel  (ringtrast) and Short-eared Owl (jorduggla)  at StorUlvåfjället/Stuore Viekejalla. On the way back we passed the little lake Ulvåtjärn. A great place for fishing and swimming it is said.
     

European Golden Plover (Ljungpipare) to the right.

So I was happy. The entire hike was hard work and my feet and back are very tired. But it was beautiful and nice. We walked about 15 km in rough terrain. And went up to about 1000m above sea level. It is good to walk in a group like this. You see much more then you would if you were on your own.



Photo of Fjällabb - Long-Tailed Skua in action. Trying to chase us of the nesting area

The dinner was quite good but fish again. I am not that good at fish. I don´t know what they do to it because the fish is slippery. :(

We went throu todays birds list at dessert as it was not so many today.


At 21.45 we did meet again. This time to go out and watch some Great Snipes dancing in the night. (dubbelbeckasin som leker). I am tired but I will go anyway. It might be the only way I can ever be able to se anything like that. I would never have found that place without Johan to show us. We were in the end of the season so it was not that intense. But we did see and hear a few male birds singing and dancing. There is a science project about this spieces as we were informed of  yesterday.

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Dubbelbeckasin/Great snipe  projekt
Back at the Lodge at 01.00.The sun is still up.  And tomorrow is the last day. :)
View over Sylarna at 22:25,  110616

More on Storulvån here:
NatureFootstep Photo2
NatureFootstep Birdblog
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Location: Åre, Sverige

2011-06-27

Storulvån 110615 Wednesday, Ånnsjön, outdoors

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Click to enlarge All photos, NF Photo  110615 at Ånnsjön
Storulvån 110615 Wednesday
I woke up once during the nigtht but went to sleep again. Then I woke up at 6.30. I dressed and went out to see if I could see some blue throat. I walked to the other side of the river but had little luck. Two of the guys were also out in the same business. We heard, but did not see, the Whimbrel (små spov). When I turned around to walk back for breakfast, I did see the Bluethroat, but only for 2 sec in the binoculars. Then it flew away.

Breakfast at 7.30 and I asked if I could borrow a thermos. I did not recieve the second letter and had noone with me as that letter suggested. Well, I got one and fixed my lunch. They offer a great breakfast. Good bread, eggs, juice and everything you need. Then I went down to look for the Bluethroat at another spot as I had some time to spare.   Somebody had seen it at the litter station behind the Lodge . And I did see it again and even  got some shots.

We left for Ånn´s trainstation at 8.45. It took a while to get there. The distance about 30 km. It was not that far to the first hidings we visited. I emediately spotted some Red-necked Phalarope (smalnäbbad simsnäppa). There were 3 of them in the pond. 2 were a pair as they started to mate.  I got some great shots I think. :) That is the highlight of the day. As was the Siberian Jay (lavskrika). A very cool bird. We saw it several times and it kept us company for a while. It seemed to like pieces of ham and steeled whatever it could. :). It was fun. It was following us to the tower. At least I think it was the same one.

There was a lot of wetland to pass during the day. Walkboards were in place but sometimes in a bad shape. Slippery and tilting. But we managed. We stoped at several hidings and towers and saw quite a lot of birds. I think I had 4 new species and some that I got better shots of. I´ll try to get some maps to show where we walked.The weather turnd out to be better then we hoped for. Cloudy all day, but no rain until we headed for the cars to go back to the station.

My feet is not used to rubberboots and start to hurt a bit. But No blisters so far.

Back at Storulvån some of us went to see if we could find the Bluethroat again, but no luck this time. I went back to take a shower before dinner and to load the shots into this computer.
Me, in the wetland

Today I have no clue of what we had for dinner except for dessert that was blueberry mouse. ? . I think the meat was thin slices of lamb meat. The frst-course was some thick soup that was very spiced. Rather good actually.

Then we gathered at the conference room to go throu todays birds, 65 I believe. :) And then Johan had a lecture about the Great Snipe (dubbelbeckasin) we are to visit tomorrow evening. It was great.

My room mate is sleeping by now and it is 22.35. It is still rather light outside. Up north like this it is closing in to midnight sun.
The map to Ånnsjön area.

Tomorrow we shall walk Storulvån Mountain, above the tree line. On "kalfjället"
Sleep tight.
More on Storulvån here:
NatureFootstep Photo2
NatureFootstep Birdblog
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2011-06-20

Storulvån 110614 Tuesday

This was My World last week. The Mountain Range in Northern Sweden. :)
 
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 NF Photo 110614
Storulvån 110615 Tuesday, Hostel Jämtland - Storulvån Mountain Lodge
I arrived at Enafors train station as sceduled. A lot of people went of and we met the Guide Johan inside the station. It turned out that we were 17 people in the group. 18 with Johan.

After presentation and introduction we headed out. We went to Ånnsjöns Bird station in Handöl. We had a introcuction to the work on the station and then spent some time birding before having some picknic lunch. It was rather cold so having the lunch  sheltered inside the tower was great.
One of Ånnsjöns birding towers overlooking the lake/wetland

After lunch we left for a hike up to the waterfall. It was beautiful. We did not see many birds but heard some as we went through some dense bush area to the river.  We did pass the little cottage they used for ringing birds. As seen in the photo the river eats up the side so soon the little house will have to be moved. We did see some a lot of mountain flowers and other stuff while hiking.
The waterfall in Handöl
After the waterfall we went down to the lake again. To see some waterbirds. Some terns was there and one duck. (bläsand) as we could see. It was now beginning to warm up. It had been rather cold during the morning. So People started to remove clothing.

We took the cars and drove the 11 km to Storulvån. Saw a bird of pray along the road.

When we arrived to Storulvån it started to rain a bit. But I went for a walk none the less.
Storulvån Mountain Lodge

Several of us want to see the bluethroat. But today we did not.

At 18.00 we was served a 3 course dinner. Very nice even if it was not my kind of food. (jordartskocks soppa m korv av någon fjällfår tror jag, inkokt röding och hallonsorbe.)

Then we sorted out todays birds and Johan told us a bit of the history of the station. My room mate is probably sleeping by now as I am sitting in the lounge writing this.

Tomorrow breakfast is served at 7.30
 Then off to some hidings and hoping for no rain.

Todays birds seen or heard of the group: 50. And then some rare flowers. :)

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2011-06-19

On route to Storulvån 110613 Monday

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Click to enlarge All photos NF Photo 110613

Stockholm on route to Storulvån, 110613 Monday

As there are always trouble with comunications I decided to go to Stockholm with an earlier train. Lately there has been trouble with delays due to suncurves and runover cows. :) Yea, the news said so.

I  took the train at 15.23 from Katrineholm and, actually, got to Stockholm at 16.40 as sceduled.

I walked around town to see if there were something interesting to shooot. But found very little. The city is not interesting in daylight I suppose. I wanted some shots of the castle and City hall for the blogs but.....I had to settle for sunshine and nice weather.
The Royal castle

The City Hall

I visited the royal castle but there were lots of building stuff as they were working on repairs or whatever. But I did take a shot at the guards. The same with the The City town hall, lots of work going on there as well.


I went back to the trainstation to look for PizzaHut. I found it but they did not have Hawaii so I went searching for a hot dog instead. The train going north was, of course, late. We were able to embark 15 min after ordinary time but it did not leave until 23.00. Did not matter really as we were to sleep anyway.

We were 6 ladies in the room and we made the beds right away. It was quite OK to sleep on the train but sometimes I half awoke when I started to slide up or down when the train passed a curve.  At 5 people started to leave the train. And after that there was no more sleep.

Tomorrow I´ll be at Enafors and Storulvån.

More on Storulvån here:
NF Fåglar Birds
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2011-06-09

Malta 110424 Sunday, Simar

Click to enlarge All photos, NF Photo 110424 in Bugibba, Malta

Malta 110424 Sunday, Simar
Finally a morning when I can sleep. Yet I woke up at 8.00. I had some breakfast and made myself ready for a walk. At 9.30 I left for Simar. I had figured it would take me little more then an hour to walk the distance. I took the streets closest to the water. It was quite nice, sun shining and not too hot. Took some shots along the way. I did stop to shoot a palmtree and a Maltesian gentleman run up to assist me. The palmtree was full of thorns so I appreciated the effort. :)  I also made a stop at a currency machine and at the WC at the divingsite. Just to make sure. :)

When I arrived at Simar refugee I had some trouble locating the entrance. And when I found it it was closed. As I suspected. I had been walking more then an hour and they did not care to open. Despite every place I read about it said it should be open between 10 - 16h. :( Well, I circled the place but did not see much as it was surrounded by dense bushes. But some birds flew in and out so it was not a complete loss. But no waterbirds as I wanted to see. But one bird of prey and some swallows flew around. And sparrows of course. Not much for an island famous for migrating birds. I found a field of Artichoke on the back of the site. Was thinking of harversting one but they were not mature.

On my way back I found my family at the square, so we took the opportunity to sit down and eat. Tehn we had some rest at the hotel before leaving to visit Peter and Véronique. It turned out to be a homewarming party. All divers, Janet and me and some friends to P and V was there. We had some sallad and barbequed meat and sausage. It was very nice. But it got cold after a while.

They had a marvellous appartment. Large with several rooms and the biggest balcony I have ever seen. With a great view as it was the top appartment. And... the lift went directly into the appartment. Cool! Never seen that before.

We left the party at 20.30 Because tomorrow is "Swimming with Dolpins".
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More on Malta here:
Malta at NatureFootstep
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