Spring Signs 2014 and a Tour out.

There are many early signs of spring after this mild month of February.  The marsh harrier has arrived, the white-tailed eagle has started nesting, the skylark is singing, reports have come about the first cranes. There are numbers of snowdrops and eranthis in the garden and the first crocus are on their way up. If the mild weather continues it won't last long before the brimstone butterfly is here. The bumble-bee queen will soon wake up. There is nothing as fine as the sound of the first bumblebee.

G

One of the first signs of spring are the flowers of hazel.









General and usual signs of spring:  

Sweet violet is one of the first flowers in March. The dark violet flower has a wonderful scent and the colour is easy to spot by hedges and glades. It is also called "Mary and the child". If the petals are plucked, a figure is seen, looking like Virgin Mary with Child Jesus.
Lesser celandine is one of our earliest spring plants. The flower has shining yellow petals, and the plant is often called buttercup. Lesser celandine belong to the family Ranunculus like the anemone.
When you see coltsfoot it is a certain sign of spring. Back in school our teacher told us that when we saw the first coltsfoot then it was really spring and we had to bring it to her. Coltsfoot is seen in  road banks, edge of ditches and lakeshores. The leaves have a contour like a little horse hoof.

As soon as the sun brings warmth to a sheltered place, the ant comes out - and the ants clump together upon the anthill. They function like mobile radiators, and they bring warmth down in the hill to the queens.
The brimstone butterfly is another certain sign of spring. The male with the magnificent  lemon-yellow colour is easy to spot in March. The white-yellow female arrives about two weeks later. The brimstone roams far and wide.
The orange-red butterfly, the small tortoiseshell, leaves its overwintering place in April. It is often seen with outspread wings in the warm sun. The small tortoiseshell is Denmark's national butterfly.

In late March and first of April the frog eggs are seen in little lakes and waterholes, the eggs are small transparent lumps with a little black spot in the middle. The frog is fully developed in 85 days, but already after four days it is possible to notice that the black spot has changed.
 
And then there is the sweet little ladybird. We put it on our forefinger and let it crawl up, and we tell this little red thing to fly up to God and ask for good weather - and it flies up!  The ladybird is also very helpful in the garden, fighting the little green mites.

The beautiful sight of the white anemone in the forest floor is magic. The flowers cover the earth before the trees have leaves. This happens in April-May - and when the beech after this beautiful sight shows us another miracle with the new incredible light-green leaves, then it is spring for good.

Nature is magic.

May

photo: grethe bachmann


A short Tour out on 22 February. 

At the end of February 2014 we'll say goodbye to the fifth mildest winter in 140 years.

On Saturday 22 February we went to the east coast of Jutland south of Århus . The weather report had told us that there would be some after effects from the recent storm in the British Isles. The weather was very windy, but also warm and with rainy showers and sunshine, changing all the time. Big black clouds came rushing, followed by rain and  a blue sky.


Here is a little collection of my photos from 22 February: 

Black buzzard

Brown buzzard.

repair after storm in October.

Kongens Kær close to Vejle city.

Kongens Kær
English: the King's Fens/ the King's Meadows


















Kongens Kær was named by the citizens of Vejle. It lies in eastern part of Vejle River valley and forms a wedge into the western part of Vejle city. It is a unique nature area which together with the lake Knapperup Sø creates a wet area of over 100 ha.

Vejle city and a bird island in front

A view from the platform to  three Vejle towers

the start of one of the nature paths.....

Kongens Kær was through many years kept relatively dry by help of pumps which dewatered the area, and it was possible to use it for farming. In connection to the weat area- project the pumps were switched off. To secure the neighbours against flood an earthen embankment was built around the area.

the bridge out to the small view platform...

...and a bird watcher on the small platform

The seagulls nest in every place they can find.

The living conditions of the bird life and the rare birch mouse (Sicista betulina)  are improved by establishing bird islands and earth banks. The low water level creates ideal conditions for a varied and species-rich plant society.


  
The birds are quick to acknowledge the improved living conditions. Here are many waders and waterfowls, and birds of prey like the marsh harrier, the red kite and occassionally the osprey. Even the white-tailed eagle has visited the area. The white-tailed eagle is a top-predator and in top of the food chain, and it tells us that Kongens Kær has a good, versatile and rich nature.

 -the platform reaches out in the air like the bridge of a ship

Kongens Kær has become an attractive destination for the citizens of Vejle and other interested, also the schools. From the large platform at the country road you can watch across the pretty landscape of Vejle River valley and the bird life in the wet meadows. The big platform has also access for wheel chairs. Downside by the path is a bridge out to a small platform in the edge of the wet area.

a seagull in a tree.................

Kongens Kær belongs to Skov- og Naturstyrelsen.

photo 2012/ 2013: grethe bachmann

The Raven is a Clever Bird....

The raven might be the brightest of all birds , the myths about it are manifold. The raven was the messenger of the Nordic god Odin -  it was also aboard Noahs Ark, from where it was sent out to find land after the Flood.


After being almost extinct in Denmark for about 100 years the raven has now taken the old land in possession. The raven has a weight of about 1 1/2 kilo and a wing span of about 1 1/2, which means that it is the largest passerine in Europe. When you see the raven from a distance it looks as if it is black as coal, but if you look closer the plumage is more metal shining with a bluish sheen and greenish hues. The older the bird is the more metal shining feathers.

 A scientist and photographer had made a photo hide in the late winter, where the birds really need some food, and he had put out some baits for his models, the birds of prey and the crows. The first hungry birds were the crows, then came the buzzards and the seagulls. Suddenly came the golden eagle - and then he really got busy with his camera. It is rare to be that close to one of the great eagles.

But the raven kept away from the hide, it had discovered that someone was sitting inside under these camouflage nets. The guy had been there an hour before sunrise in order to "fool" the birds, but the black bird had fooled him instead. All the other birds were munching away, while the ravens were hovering above the feeding site and the photo hide shouting its krårk, which can be heard far and wide. He never got his close-up of the raven. His opinion is that the raven is the only bird whom he suspects being able to reason and figure things out.







In the Nordic mythology Odin used the ravens Hugin and Munin as observers. Hugin was the thought and Munin was the remembrance. This was a thousand years ago and there was a great deal of respect around the raven back then. It was a symbol of power, sharp senses and wisdom. Before Dannebrog came down from the sky in 1219 as the oldest national flag in the world, the Danes used the Raven Banner, a red cloth with two black ravens representing the national symbol of the Danes. The raven was a sacred bird.

Yggdrasil and ravens, Silkeborg Museum

Odin depict on a helmet, 7. century. wikipedia.

From the middle of the 1800s the view of nature changed in Denmark, and the raven was brought down with it. Together with raptors and largely all carnivors the raven was excommunicated and violently pursued. The wise black bird was virtually eradicated in the Danish nature, and it has not come back to its old land until the latest decades. But it came back in honor and dignity!  The Danish breeding population of ravens is today more than 1000 pairs and there is probably place and food enough for twice as many.




The raven, the raptors and other carnivors were in the 1800s indirectly victims of some high political changes, which contributed to feed a new approach in many Danes. The time of the land reclamation had taken off . A large part of the Jutland heath was cultivated, and furthermore came the comprehensive drainage of the "useless" wet areas. The new view of nature divided birds and animals in vermins, who had to be killed and useful game who had to be protected at any price. It was a kind of household philosophy. Raptors, ravens and other predators were shot, caught in traps, poisoned and had their nests destroyed. Shooting prizes were given for dead and unwanted birds and mammals. During only half a century several species of raptors were extinct in Denmark - and the raven held barely out.




The pheasant from Southeast Asia had an impact on the raven and the raptors, when this colourful fowl was introduced in Denmark as a hunting object in the 1800s. The hatred grew of the species who ventured to eat some meat now and then, and the omnivorous raven took of course a dead or wounded pheasant, if it got the chance. The raven has a secondary job in the renovation of nature.






In the 1950s were as far as known only about 10 pair of ravens in Denmark, most of the nests were in the southern part of Jutland - and it was from here the raven spread up through Jutland. It is now breeding in the main land of Jutland except in the outernest dunes at the west coast. The ancient bird of the Nordic gods has also won a terrain on the Isles, but it is shy and sceptical everywhere. It might take generations for it to get the distrust out of the body and achieve the confidence in the most dangerous mammal on earth, Man.






Source: 
Ravn til Gavn. Som sendebud og sladrehank, Jan Skriver, Natur og Miljø, nr. 1, 2013, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening

photos of ravens: grethe bachmann, Vilsted sø, 2009. 
photo: Silkeborg Museum: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk 


 EXTRA:
I have found the most wonderful Japanese blog about ravens and crows. If you are interested try to see this:

www.avesnoir.com/yata-garasu-the ravens-of-japanese-myth

Grethe ´)

A small town, a new lake and a peregrine falcon

Limfjordens Hus.

Limfjordens Hus, Scandinavian style

motor boat, view from window

Lighthouse

Limfjordens Hus

I had a birthday, which everyone of us has each year of course - it was in September and we decided to go to the northernest place of the insula Salling, where I had heard about a new restaurant on the outmost tip of land at the small town Glyngøre - a town where my father spent many hours of his childhood, sailing and fishing. His home was south of Glyngøre at Nymølle, where his father was the owner of  Nymølle Tilework.

This new restaurant was built about a year ago, in 2011, a blackpainted wood building, the architecture like the stem of a ship, there is a gourmét kitchen, and a boutique where you can buy all kinds of delicacies (especially in connection to fish) and wine. The menu contains a lot of good dishes, especially fish, mussels and oysters. I like fish, but not mussels and oysters. The gourméts can have them in peace for me. The restaurant is called Limfjordens Hus. It was a very lovely place. We had a table by the panorama window with a view to the waters of Limfjorden where sailboats, fishing boats and little old motorboats came passing by. The sun was shining, it was a perfect day and the food was delicious.

Glyngøre

Glyngøre.
The little cosy town Glyngøre has a unique placement upon an spit of land in the Limfjorden, a land tongue which creates several beaches,  surrounded by high hills, intersected by deep slopes, and giving fine possibilities for fantastic tours, both on land and water. There are some well-developed path systems, and from Glyngøre till the neighbouring town Durup is established a planete road with "the Sun" placed at the tourist bureau in Glyngøre and the outermost planete in Durup. Another biking and hiking path is the old railway, which runs from the harbour of Glyngøre through fields, forests and villages all the way to the town Skive in the southern part of Salling.

Glyngøre harbour

Glyngøre has its roots in water, both ferry and fishing have supported the people of the district since from time immemorial  and created revenues ever since Glyngøre was mentioned for the first time in 1445. The greatest development came with the railway in the 1870s. The Salling railway opened up for a revival of business and increase of population which caused that a church was consecrated in the middle of the town in 1919. Both the industry and the placement of the town at the fjord and the forest have caused that it has developed from two windswept fishing huts into a modern settlement.

The Limfjord-Oyster.
The most wellknown business in Glyngøre is the oyster and mussel  industry. Oysters were in Stone Age an important food - this is obvious when you see the mountains of shells in the several kitchen middens from Stone Age. Oysters became later (Ostrea edulis) a luxurious food, reserved the finest circles, and king Frederik II elevated in 1587 the catch of oysters to a monopoly under the royal house - a socalled kronregalie (regalia) which ordered all oysters, which were presence in Denmark, the property of the Crown. The oyster fishing was for many years a good income for the king, and up to our days it was the Danish monarchy and later the Danish state who leased the right to fish oysters in Denmark. Limfjorden is the only place with large presence today of the oyster, which earlier was common in all Danish waters, and the Ostrea edulis, the flat European oyster, is not being fished in other places than in Denmark. Denmark's export of Limfjord-oyster is ab. 15 million piece a year. The Limfjord-oyster has now got the MSC-mark.

The Blue Mussel.
But I cannot mention the oyster-business without saying something about the blue mussel ( Mytilus edulis) , for this is also one of Glyngøre's wellknown and important exports. 100 % of the Danish mussel-export has the renowned and international MSC-mark (Marine Stewardship Council). The blue mussels in the Limfjorden are cultivated between May and September, and about a couple of thousand tons are harvested each year, the mussels are produced sustainably without or with only little impact of the environment and the other mussel-populations. The whole Danish mussel-export is about 42.500 tons each year.

The Salling Girl

Now! I really had to give you a recipe after all this talk, but I cannot deliver it without copying someone's recipe, and this is not allowed I guess!

Sallingsund Bridge in the background

 The Salling Girl.
An artist (Erik Dahl Nygaard) has created the sculptures of 8 Salling-girls, a 2 meter tall bronze figure, they all wear stilettos. When I saw the sculpture of this girl outside the restaurant I wondered why she stood like that, looking like she had a scoliosis, but  well it must be the artist's idea of a young girl, but then it was because she had to balance on stillettos. The other 7 Salling girls are placed in various towns in the Salling district.  




















 Grynderup Sø.

Public Planche from naturplan.dk

In the afternoon  we went to a new lake which was re-established recently near Glyngøre. Grynderup sø (lake) is a nature restoration project. The purpose is to reduce the outlet of nitrogen into the Limfjorden and to create a better living for birds, animals and plants -  and to give people new possibilities of experiencing nature. The project has been carried through via voluntary agreements with the landowners. The main part of the area is still privately owned, while the Miljøministeriet (environment) has taken over ab. 80 hectare of the northernest part of the area, where the public probably will come. Bike- and hiking paths have been established, areas with tables and benches, parking places and primitive overnight places. Lookout towers give possibility to see the bird life, and in the northern end of the lake is a drawing- ferry in the narrowest place of the oblong lake.

                                                                                                   

 

red admiral

toad, a kid!

elderberry

peregrine falcon, photo: stig bachmann nielsen.




The Peregrine Falcon.
There were still some flowers by the path along the lake, like toadflax and yarrow and some yellow ones, there were dragonflies, too fast for shooting, and there was a tiny, tiny toad, who was looking at us in a very suspicious way.  The elderberry had fruits, ready to pluck for elderberry juice for winter, but there was not enough for both me and the birds, so I let them be. And then - there it came, the highlight of the day - a streak in the air like a flash of light - the peregrine falcon - it came so fast that I saw nothing but a glimpse. But my son took a shot of the noble bird in its speed. And this falcon is really extremely fast. The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on earth when it is diving.

The peregrine falcon's maximum speed:
Speed is the falcon's forte. If birds of prey were airplanes, then the eagles, the buzzards, the kites would be the gliders, and the falcons would be the jets. Estimates of the maximum speed of a falcon dive are as fast as 273 miles an hour (440 km/h) based on analysis of motion-picture footage of a falcon in full vertical dive taken by the Naval Research Laboratory in England in WWII. Most biologists, however, estimate the falcon's maximum velocity at 150 to 200 miles an hour ( 240 to 320 km/h), which is still faster than any other animal on earth.
(from my article "Falconry in the Middle Ages" from August 2010, on the Thyra-blog) 




photo September 2012: grethe bachmann nielsen; stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk