Spring at last
By Stefan Hansson
Photo: Annelie and Stefan HanssonThe winter has been longer and more tedious than ever. The fields around Umeå are still covered with snow and very few birds have arrived; some Canada geese, ducks, starlings for example. Inland there is even more snow and most lakes and streams are still covered with ice, only very few ice holes are to be seen. On the other hand; cranes, whooper swans, golden eyes and geese have come to rest in them on their way up north.
We are waiting impatiently for the snow to go away. At this point we have come to loath it; we have had quite enough of it. After six months of winter, spring cannot come soon enough and we want to breathe the fresh scents of the pinewoods in the country, to experience the wildlife of the woods and streams. Now we are almost there.
The summer season has begun; we spend every weekend at the country now, as we did during the Easter holidays. As mentioned above, the snow made the stay less interesting that it could have been, but at least we saw quite a lot of grouse, willow grouse, hazel hens and signs of capercailzie being around the house. We could see whooper swans and cranes passing by above us too, as well as the golden eagles that live on the mountain above the house; only, they stay all the year round.
Some of the small birds have come back as well; chaffinch and blackbird for instance. Their singing is a most welcome sound this time in the early season, something we have missed all winter. It is Thursday today and by this time tomorrow we will be on our way back into the country. We cannot wait to get there.
April 20, 2006
Country life
The weekend has passed by and we are back in town. The spring has now definitely arrived to Umeå, but inland there is still winter even though the snow is becoming more and more soggy and cannot support heavier creatures than dogs; I tried to walk on it, but sank down above the knee.
Skiing could have been an alternative, but the result would have been the same; the only way of spending time in the woods was as usual to walk the tracks left by snow mobiles. In them the snow is packed really hard and allowed us to take long walks in them.
Small game was abundant; black grouse, hazel hens, capercailzie and even a hare. Most interesting of it all are the capercailzies we see regularly around the house this time of year. They need old pines in the winter because they feed on pine needles and there are a lot of those old pines around the house; only, this time we also found a number of ant hills that were completely flattened by the hungry birds. It seemed as if bombs had struck them! In fact, exactly the same ant hills were destroyed at the same time last year. These hooligan capercailzies seem to have made a habit out of re-arranging ant hills, but after a whole winter on a strict pine needle diet, we guess they cannot be blamed for eating juicy ants and ant eggs when given the chance. Of course that does not mean that they have stopped eating pine needles; Nenya, the Springer, scared one out of a tree further on along the track. It was most pleasing to see that the dog had not forgotten about steadiness during the winter; she just sat there staring at the bird going away from her. Our dogs have practically no contact with game for six months during the long winter, so we have good reasons to doubt their ability to stay put after not having been in close contact with game for that period of time.
Even though the winter is still very much alive, more and more of the migrating birds come pouring in. There are still very few ice holes for them to rest in, but instead of one or two of each species, there are small flocks of whooper swans, golden eyes and mallards. Of course they can find something to eat, but what about the cranes? We saw some cranes on the ice this weekend and we found it very hard to believe that they could find anything suitable for them to eat there. The weather forecast tells us that warm winds will reach us this week, maybe then the snow will start melting away and the birds will be able to find food. Otherwise they may live to regret coming so early to our parts of the country.
April 23, 2006
Instant spring
The last few days have once more proven the old truth that we usually go directly from winter to almost summer-like conditions. Here in town most of the snow is gone. The fields that a few days ago were covered with snow are now green! The thermometer shows 12-15 degrees Celsius and life has returned to frozen limbs.
We can only hope that this warmth has had its effect on the snow inland. It would be nice to be able to enjoy the great outdoors, but also to have the chance to give the dogs a spot of training before the birds start nesting. There is a time for everything.
April 26 2006
