Lille Vildmose in Himmerland, Northeast Jutland.

It was magnificent summer weather in late May and start June - and one of our first summer trips went to the Lille Vildmose in  Himmerland (Northeast Jutland). Lille Vildmose is a raised bog, it is an endangered habitat, not just in Denmark but also in Europe. A project LIFE+ focuses on securing the raised bog and to create conditions for the decomposed part of the raised bog to re-emerge in the long run. This area is the largest left raised bog of the lowlands in northern Europe, and it includes more than half the total raised bog in Denmark. Lille Vildmose is appointed as a Natura2000 area (7824 ha) and a Natura2000 plan has been prepared with a focus in keeping and extending the raised bog area.

From the reed beds sounds the voice of the bittern.

Eurasian Bittern 


When this is said the large moor in Himmerland is a wonderful place to visit, also because of the boardwalks across a big part of the area. It would be impossible to cross the moor without these boardwalks and bridges. The animal and plant life is very rich and you'll never know how much or what you'll see on such a tour. Birds of prey, like the golden eagle, the whitetailed eagle, the marsh harrier or the Eurasian hobby. We did not see the large birds of prey this time, but we heard the rare golden oriole. We did not see this beautiful yellow bird, but we later came to a place where we heard another rare bird. The strange voice of the Eurasian bittern sounded from the reed beds -  and a few moments later an Eurasian bittern flew above our heads and disappeared in the reeds. A rare sight. There are approximately about 22 Eurasian bitterns in Lille Vildmose right now. We heard its strange voice calling out like an angry  bull every five minutes.

                                                                  
Legend
No other bird in Denmark is surrounded by so much mystery. Both the hidden ways of its living, the owl-like flight and the strange voice have contributed to this. People were scared of this strange bird with a voice as strong as any mammal - and when it was strutting around in the night hours people thought they met a ghost. The voice of the bittern created legends about the Merman's cows, roaring and  longing for coming ashore. In the old days lived a landlord, named Mads Spejser, at Aggersborggård at Limfjorden opposite the town Løgstør. He was a brutal master and a nasty neighbour and very much disliked. His spirit is said to hazard like a dark bird across the landscape at night, flying with silent wing beats, uttering hoarse cries like the  bittern. 

New Observation Tower

A new observation tower has been raised in 2014,  called Brandtaarnet (the fire tower). Until the 1980s was here a fire watch tower, where a guard supervised the moor to observe if  there was fire or smoke. The new tower is a part of an ongoing and very comprehensive EU-LIFE nature-restoration project  Brandtårnet is the sixth observation tower in Lille Vildmose. It is 6-7 meter tall, and half as tall as the tower at the Vildmose Center at Vildmosevej. But it is tall enough since the moor is as flat as a panncake -  and there is a fine view across the earlier peat-extraction area, which during WWII gave work to 1200 men. Today it is a bird-rich restoration area, and from the new yellow tower it is possible to follow the rapid change of the nature area in these years.

The moor was earlier overgrown with birch which has now been removed. Only a few birches are allowed to stay in the landscape.

cloudberry, no flowers yet.

cranberry flowers

Plants

The plant life is special in a moor, there are tufts of spaghnum moss, cranberry, rosemary heather, bell heather, cloudberry, sundew, cotton grass, white-beak-sedge etc.

bell heather

cotton grass

Kærguldsmed / Leucorrhinia pectoralis

A Dragonfly...........


In Europe, dragonflies have often been seen as sinister. Some English names, such as "devil's darning needle"  and "ear cutter", link them with evil or  injury.  A Romanian folk tale says that the dragonfly was once a horse possessed by the devil. Swedish  folklore holds that the devil uses dragonflies to weigh people's souls. The Norwegian name for dragonflies is Øyenstikker ("eye-poker"), and in Portugal they are sometimes called tira-olhos ("eye-snatcher"). They are often associated with snakes, as in the Welsh name gwas-y-neidr, "adder's servant". The Southern United States term "snake doctor" refers to a folk belief that dragonflies follow snakes around and stitch them back together if they are injured.
For some Native American tribes they represent swiftness and activity, and for the Navajo they symbolize pure water. Dragonflies are a common motif in  Zuni pottery; stylized as a double-barred cross, they appear in Hopi rock art and on Pueblo necklaces. They have also been used in traditional medicine in Japan and China. In some parts of the world they are a food source, eaten either as adults or larvae; in Indonesia, for example, they are caught on poles made sticky with birdlime, then fried in oil as a delicacy.

And two Butterflies

Moserandøje /Large heath.

Bølleblåfugl / Cranberry Blue

in Portland Mose

some restoration work in the moor.

a view from Portland Mose out to the coast (to Mulbjerge)

A poppy field near the Vildmose.

the limestone quarry near Lille Vildmose.

It was a lovely summer's day in Lille Vildmose.

photo: grethe bachmann, June 2014.

The American Paint Horse

Lilly from Texas




Paint horse and a sweet little foal.

I have often seen those pretty two-coloured horses in the fields, and I called them Indian horse, remembering the old Westerns. In the movies they mostly belonged to the Indians AFAIK. But I think Little Joe in Bonanza had a horse in black and white. The proper name is Paint horse, and the race comes from USA. It is a pretty horse with a muscular body building and bright colours in black-white or brown-white, and the shape of the patterns is much varied.

The reason why I suddenly got interested right now was a wonderful story from Texas I've just read about a lovely Paint horse named Lilly and its friendship with its owner. I shall not tell you anything more about this, it has to be told to you by Jack Matthew himself in his blog Sage to Meadow, one of the blogs I follow.

January 2011: Lilly 1985-2011

The race Paint Horse has existed in Denmark since 1984, and there are registrated 50 new paints each year. In USA Paints is one of the fastest growing horse races in registration of foals.


photo Nordjylland, Lille Vildmose 2008: grethe bachmann

Lille Vildmose in 2010

It is amazing to see how Mother Nature takes back her old land. The raised bog in Lille Vildemose is developing fast during the last years and will continue doing so - and the recent peat areas are now filled with water. Flora and fauna shows its richness, birds, bees, butterflies, dragonflies - they all come back. Nature is breathing.


Portland Mose in the northern section of Lille Vildmose in 2008, where the wooden pavements are not yet connected.


Portland Mose in 2009 before the water gets higher.


Portland Mose in 2010 with much more water along the pavement.


The sundew is a sign that things are doing well in the moor. It was very hard to find last year but in June 2010, the sundew had become numerous. (click to enlarge)

The sphagnum moss lives and grows from rain water and from the nutrients which follow the rain. The raised bog thus functions as a gigantic fungus, keeping the rain water. The upper ab. 1/2 meter of the raised bog consists of living sphagnum moss growing each year and making the bog a few millimeters thicker. Under the living moss is a peat layer with water, free of oxygen. This peat layer, which bottom is about 1.500 years old, has a thickness of 4-6 meters. How it looks under the upper living layers of sphagnum moss is visible in the brown areas at Grønvej and Møllesøvej, where peat was last digged, but now the production of spaghnum is in its last stage. When this production has stopped the wet raised bog-ntaure will be fully re-created. The raised bog in Lille vildmose is meant to achieve the same extent from times immemorial.


Along Hegnsvej in the northern section of Lille Vildmose has the peat industry been given up, and it is now obvious how nature walks in and changes from month to month. Greylag goose, crane and marsh harrier have began breeding, and the bittern is heard spring and summer. It is the ghost of the reed forest and sounds like a mad bull roaring in the distance. Thousand of dragonflies fly across the former digging areas, which are now water-filled and overgrown after many decades of industrial production. Nature is gaining terrain in Lille Vildmose, which will become wetter and wilder in the years to come.


The lake and the reed forest where the marsh harrier has its nest and where the bittern roars.


A few trees still stick their branches above water.


A solid bridge across the water. Maybe the railing to one side is a little scaring for a family with small children. Actually the moor is not a place for small children. There are lots of vipers along the wooden pavement - and although you do not see them they are everywhere and it is difficult for impulsive and energetic small children not to rush out into the moor.


The pavement is narrow but necessary!


A leece lay in the midst of the thick plant layer upon the lake. It tried to get down under for a long time, but suddenly it found a hole and vips! it disappeared. You can still buy leeches on the pharmacy, but I don't know if they are still used to cleanse the blood like in the old days. To the right a pretty Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus). There were many of those lively Argus Blue that day. (click to enlarge)


Ffine golden-brown colours in the moss. To the right bell heather, which is typical for a place like this, and the butterflies love it. Honey from bell heather is dark and very aromatic. be. (click to enlarge).

Hare's tail cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum L.) Eriophorum grows wild in the North and is a common plant in the moors. It is very beautiful when it is swaying in the summer wind. The eriphorum reddens in the raised bogs. The reddened leaf-rosettes are being cleansed for peat soil and are now mentioned peat fibers. The fibres are card together with wool and sold as "cardflor" and knitting yarn. (NB: It is not allowed to use the cottongrass in Lille Vildmose).


cottongras like snow flakes and a white birch


Birch thicket, Portland Mose has been overgrown with birch thicket, but most tress and bushes have now been removed and now they are only a resonable and decorative part of the moor.


There are may view points along the pavement road. Portland Mose with its long wooden pavements and bridges across the moor and the lake is a good place for people to come, and many come to see what is happening along the way. This is also a fantastic educational place for school classes.


It is visible here how broad the beams are which hold wooden pavement. In the moist soil between the beams are sundew, cloudberry, bell heather and many other interesting plants. Frogs and lizards, vipers hiding, butterflies fluttering, dragonflies hovering and bumble bees humming. A wonderful summer's day. Maybe I can come back in the autumn.


photo Lille Vildmose 27. June 2010: grethe bachmann

Portland Moor, Lille Vildmose, North Jutland in June-July-August

In Portland Mose have been established catwalks so you can walk safely through the wetland.

Lille Vildmose in the eastern part of Himmerland is an eldorado for nature lovers and people interested in history. It is Denmark's largest liste land area of 7600 hectare. Here are among other things Northwest Europe's largest raised bog, lakes whicch are rich in birds and unique nature- and grazing woods. There are opportunities to see royal eagle, wild boar, crane, red deer, otter and other large animals. It is all about enjoying the silence, the scents, the seasons, the open land, the bird life and the numerous lesser animals and plants.


In the Vildmose-land on the edge of Kattegat and just south of Limfjorden are rich opportunities to research the terrain on foot, on bicycle or in car. Lille Vildmosecenter is the natural center of a visit. Here is all information about the nature and culture in Vildmosen. People can choose to research the moor by themselves or on a guided tour.


Hare's-tail Cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum )

In the nature of Lille Vildmose you can walk on boggy ground where carnivorus plants like sundew grows. Its food are little flies, mosquitos and spiders, which it catches with its tempting, shining and sticky drops. In the sky above the moor and the open land are the best opportunities in Denmark to see the royal eagle hovering above its hunting grounds. The Vildmose-land is the cradle of the Danish royal eagles.

Long-tailed tit and swallow
From 1999 have royal eagles been breeding in the forest of Lille Vildmose, and now has the large white-tailed eagle also established itself in the area. The eagles are a part of the greatness of nature in the moor land. From Hegnsvej (road) south of Høstemark Forest in the northeastern part of Lille Vildmose are daily seen royal eagles, and at Tofte Sø (lake) has during long periods almost been a guarantee that the white-tailed eagle came in the telescope. The migthy raptors hunt often cormorants in the summer season by the large cormorant colony at Tofte Sø. Horses in Lille Vildmose

For several years the central lake has had Denmark's largest
colony of cormorants, about 4.000 couple, but the colony is
smaller now. This might be because there is a lack of fish in
Kattegat - or maybe because the eagles hunt the cormorants
and stress them.
Europe's tallest bird, the crane, is a characteristic touch in the
nature of the moor. From March until late autumn the trumpets
of the cranes are heard early morning and late evening. There
are several breeding couple in the area, which in periods attract
flocks of cranes that often seek food upon cultivated fields near
the Lille Vildmosecenter.


Cloudberry and Bog Rosemary

The landscape of Lille Vildmose is very varied with open
extensive land of raised bogs, lakes, grass fenns with horses
and cattle , birch- thicket, grazing-woods with red deer and
wild boar, plains and brown sections with a production of
spaghnum, which is about to stop in order to re-establish the
wet moor. Seen from the 30-40 m high hills which run north-
south west of Lille Vildmose are several view points. If you
stand an early morning on one of the hills and look across the
low moor land, while there is a ground mist, it is easy to sense
the form and extent of the moor.


Cranberry and Blackberry


Common Brimstone and Idas Blue

The ground mist fills each low place like a duvet of mist, so
you can see the outline of the moor. Some of Denmark's most
animal-rich grazing woods are situated in Lille Vildmose.
Høstemark Forest to the northeast and Tofte Forest to the
south are surrounded by game fences, but they can be visited
on guided tours. In the grazing woods are some of the largest
population of red deer in the country.


Painted Lady and Stag's-horn Clubmoss


Moor Frog and Common Lizard

In Tofte Forest and moor is Denmark's oldest and largest
population of 150 wild boars. Caused by the rich animal life
the grazing woods have a richness in species which is unique
in Denmark. In Høstemark Forest which is the best examined,
have scientists found more than 5.000 species of plants and
animals. And there are still found new species in the Vildmose-
forests, which are treasures of diversity.




Large heath and Common Blue


Eurasian Hobby/Lærkefalk/Falco subbuteo)
photo: Hegnsvej, Lille Vildmose: stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan foto

The raised bog belong to the largest and best preserved
in the northwest European lowland. Tofte moor is an
impressive plain, from where you can hear the Eurasian
curlew, Europe's largest water bird, when it is whistling in
the summer season. The creation of Lille Vildmose begun
about 6.000 years ago in the time of the Stone Age Sea.

The eastern Himmerland was an archipelago with the
present Vildmose under water. Together with the lift of the
land Vildmosen was divided from the sea, which today is
Kattegat. The area became a lagoon, which edges gradually
was overgrown in reeds. A swamp developed during the times,
where spaghnum moss arrived. These mosses took over the
nature scenery and changed the swamp into a hængesæk (=
a plant-society made by tangled roots and stalks, which is
found and grows in the surface of a moor or above open water
without any connection to the bottom) - and later into a raised
bog with a firm plant cover. When the mosses came to the Lille
Vildmose- area around year 500 A.C., it gradually became the
raised bog we know today.




Migrant Hawker/Efterårsmosaikguldsmed/Aeshna mixta



Auerochs, these ochses are very shy, not curious like most cattle, they turn their back on you, "I want to be alone".

The sphagnum mosses can live and grow on rain water
and the nutrients which follows the rain. In this way a raised
bog functions as a gigantic landscape-sponge, which keeps the
rain water. The upper about half meter of the moor are living
spaghnum mosses, which grows and each year makes the moor
a few millimeter thicker. Under the living mosses is a peat-layer,
filled with water and free of oxygen. This peat-layer which
bottom is about 1.500 years old, is where Lille Vildmose is best
preserved in the central part of Tofte Moor. How it looks below
the upper and living layers of spaghnum moss is seen upon the
brown areas at Grønvej and Møllesøvej, where is still being
digged spaghnum for pot-soil. Here are cut meters from the
peat-layers, but the production of spaghnum will soon stop.

Contemporary to the stop of production the wet raised bog
nature will be re-created. It is the plan that the raised bog
will reach the extent almost like in the beginning of its life.
Along Hegnsvej in the northern part of Vildmosen has the
peat-production been given up, and here is seen how the
nature comes in and changes almost from month to month.
Here have now the greylags, cranes and marsh harriers begun
to breed, and spring and summer the bittern is heard, this
bird is the ghost of the reed-wood, it cries like an angry bull,
that roars far away. Thousend of dragon flies fly across the
old digging-places, which are now water filled and getting
overgrown after being used for industrial production for many
decades. The nature is getting back its lost terrain in Lille
Vildmose, which will become wetter and wilder in the years
to come.


Bulrush

photo Lille Vildmose, Portland, June, July, August 2008/2009: grethe bachmann