I have no heavy training... Barely Elementary School. Preferred the wilderness, it became my university, but I got muddy boots and experience instead of School knowledge so my English was therefore quite inadequate. This blog is a project to improve my skills in English language.
We all have our own universe, welcome to visit mine.
Now, at last is
65 km of hiking trail through nature reserves adjusted for the summer season. It’s
been a hard job. A rainy spring and strong winds has turned over more trees
than usual.
Several hiking
trails passing through bear land, always a little more exciting, even if you do
not see the bear is always there, somewhere in the area.
A small snack for
a hungry bear becomes a gigantic reconstruction project for an ant community…
It goes
straight to my heart, this short film from two talented twin sisters in Russia.
Quagga was
awarded as Best Environmental film in Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival,
Ecotopfilm 2013.
I met this fuzzy
guy today. Many believe that the moose is king of the forest; I think this is overrated…
The month of May
has been cold. Often, clear nights with temperatures below zero at daybreak,
rain or rain showers and very windy during the day. No good circumstances for
either paragliding or spring planting in the garden. Only the work remains, and
there is more of it than I have time for. (Therefore, no blog post last month)
Good weather is important for the well-being and mood; it is noticeable as soon
as the sun comes out.
To cheer me up
and you too, if you feel the same way, a good movie can do wonders. Here is a
trailer for an upcoming action movie that seems promising 😉
And we must not
forget the charity…
Today Tiburtius day, according
to ancient folklore, the day when the bear leaves the den. I have not seen any
tracks yet but they tend to be awake this time of year. Soon, you can see the
impressive tracks on patches of snow and along muddy roads.
First time after they woke up,
they stay around the bear den. The body needs to get in shape after the long
sleep. The plug … need to be removed and bowel function get started. Tree
Bark can serve as food for some time, but as soon as they start wandering ants
stands for maximum protein intake and other goodies that they find, like rotten
moose carcass. Yummy!
It is exciting to study the area surrounding a used Bear’s Den, after the bear left it, of course. (okay, more exciting if the bear is still in the area but it could then become unhealthy excitement …)
At a Bear training camp I found
the bear had; Climbed into seven trees, sometimes up to 6 meters in height.
Knocked over and demolished seven rotten tree trunks. He had slaughtered six small spruces, fifteen
birch saplings and three smaller pines. He had also clawed, bitten and lopped
twenty pines, two birches and three firs. Spruce twigs were then braided into
thick and warm beds.
Seven meters pine bark had been
used to fill a hungry bear’s stomach. Eleven droppings confirmed that fiber is
good for the stomach. And some toothpicks were not needed …
I have just read
Winterdance by Gary Paulsen and am still a bit overwhelmed. He is a very entertaining
writer and it feels immediately as if we were soul mates. He does not like
moose, and I understand him. American moose seem to be seven times worse than
our Swedish.
The story about his
apprenticeship period with the new dogs, the dogs from hell, was incredibly
funny and reminded me of my time as a horse coachman in forest work. The timber was heavy and the horse did not
have the same understanding of how the work would be carried out, as I had. It
hurt both body and soul. Learning time is often quite painful.
Iditarod race is
probably not for me, seems to be terribly demanding, but it was an amazing trip
to read about. Read it!
During the time
that I read often returned the memory of an old workmate, Grizzly, a stunning
mix between Greenland dog and an unusually large German shepherd. He became an outstanding friend and companion
during ten working seasons in the wilderness. 55 kg muscles in a sweet little
doggy.
He tracked better
than me, especially on bare ground. He worked very methodically, from footprint
to footprint. He was a nature lover with a very big heart and even tried to
spend time with an adult male lynx. (Holy shit what angry it became!) It went
better with wolves, them he was dancing with a few times. He was pretty hungry
and got a very special look when he saw squirrels or reindeer, the same big wet
eyes that I get when mashed turnips with pork served on a plate …
The only animal
he did not like was the bear, it scared the crap out of him. Therefore I always
knew if there were bears around when I prepared our night camp. It’s safe and
cozy with a four-legged companion at the campfire, except when they are staring
stiffly out into the darkness and growls …
It happened that
he almost scared the life out of a hunter or fisherman who we met during our wanderings;
he was sometimes quite similar to a wolf. About the same size and color
coverage, at least for those who were not used to seeing wolves.
We had a deal; he
did not need to have a leash if my commands were obeyed. From the first week we
had developed a common language that was based on thin whistles, small gestures
and appealing looks. At least it was my communication with him, he answered
mostly with a low voice Woof.
On one occasion
when twilight prevailed, I suddenly saw him at his own journey of discovery at
the edge of a bog next to our camp. I got pissed; he broke our agreement so I
took the leash in my hand and walked with firm steps to connect him. When I
reached halfway, I suddenly hear rustling sound behind my back. It’s the dog
who had just woken up and rushes up from his bed hidden under a spruce. What I
was about to hook up was a wolf …
The wife and I
did a chilly night outdoors last weekend. We thought about taking the
temperature in the spring and it proved to be hot, although it was slightly
more than 10 degrees below zero. About twenty black grouse held party on the
marsh and traces showed that even a capercaillie rooster had pulled the wings
in the snow. It’s almost time for the mightiest spectacle in the spring,
capercaillie games.
At dusk landed
two hawk owls next to us and mated. Soon after, it was time for two pygmy owls.
The day before, I had seen two golden eagles mate in the top of an old dry
pine, incredible wilderness feeling especially since a hawk owl right next
cried out for female company. The same morning woke a colleague with two
barking Ural owl who looked hungrily at him. Last but not least, my parents
have a horny eagle owl that just after twilight crying out for beautiful ladies
from their fire ladder … it’s a busy time in the woods for some time to come!
I worked on the
boundary of a new nature reserve yesterday and took the opportunity while
putting up some nesting boxes for Ural owl. The working machine worked great as
a platform. The absence of old trees with nesting holes nowadays doing nesting
boxes extra valuable. I hope that the owls notice which generous and nice
person I am and ends to hit me in the head when I pass forwards early summer.
Spring hesitates.
In the valley it is free of snow and the first Lapwings shivering in the cold
north wind. In the mountains it is winter, still around 75 cm deep snow and
minus 10 degrees some nights. In between is the spring thaw, infinite spring
thaw.
Wolf tracking
season is almost over, it became quite remarkable, at least for me personally.
The first part went very well, gave good tracking and interesting experiences.
Then it became tricky, neither the weather nor wolves wanted to cooperate. It
became in some way, neither nor…
The young wolf I
called lint brain (fluff brain) was a short acquaintance, it was shot along
with his five siblings and both parents during the hunting of wolves. A bad memory
I try to forget. There are some other wolf territories in the neighborhood so
hopefully it will soon be born new wolves that need to be loved.
Even the golden
eagle inventory season is coming to an end. Work has progressed quite well, two
old territories remains to get confirmed and some new to grasp. So it always
is. It is truly remarkable how such large birds can hide their nests and their
presence so well in the landscape.
Eagle
reconnaissance works best when the wind blows pretty hard, but when the wind
speed ports around 35 knots (18 m / s) shakes the binoculars so they become
unusable. The other week I had to fasten the binoculars with retaining straps
in the work vehicle.
We are soon
approaching a new era. Spring rush time. When all happening at the same time,
when it returns more and more birds that need to be looked at and listened to,
all nature awakens from hibernation and everything must be experienced again. Go
out and enjoy!
There seems to be
a short winter, spring birds reported from the southern part of the county and
the snow melts alarmingly. On Hemberget (Home Mountain) has the depth of snow
dropped from 100 cm to 80 cm in just a few days. Best to get wood for shelters
and huts in place before the spring thaw is upon us.
I am extremely
happy with my new colleague, Yamaha Grizzly 700, it reaches almost everywhere.
Big difference from formerly when we wore everything on the back, it was heavy
and took considerably more time. Okay, it sounds more, but my groaning and
panting was not silent either.
In fact, I sink
deeper in the snow or on wet mire than what the machine is doing; it has
significantly lower ground pressure. If it runs slowly and thoughtfully, it
leaves almost no trace behind on bare ground.
Yesterday’s work
was a temporary guest appearance with reserve’s work, there is still a time of
predator tracking. Furthermore, the spring like weather led to that the eagles
started to receive spring feeling. Work with them will probably start earlier
than usual this year.
Last week has
been a lonely cat walk. I have been following up reports of family groups of
lynx, but only found solitary animals. The population has really decreased in
our area in recent years. Sadly, it is an absolutely fantastic predator;
hopefully it’s just a temporary setback.
It is noteworthy that even
experienced hunters often miss judge tracks from lynx. They think they see
traces of animals with different size of the paws and report it as family group,
when in fact it is only one animal that walked on a bit different surfaces. (Although other factors such as speed and gangue influences the track size.)
On hard ground footprint is
slightly larger than that of the red fox. Approximately 7-9 cm long (Red fox;
5-7 cm) While dogs have a symmetric paw (where you cannot distinguish between
right and left footprint) have cats an asymmetrical. The picture shows clearly
that it is a right front paw. (Compare with your right hand) That there is a
front paw shown by the shape of the metatarsal pad, it curves slightly inwards.
(Rear foot metatarsal pad bulge slightly outward)
The lynx has built in snowshoes!
On loose surfaces, it sprawls with its paw to obtain as good carrying capacity
as possible. There are only a few meters between the above two pictures, but it is the same animal, only the snow cover is different. Not infrequently is this larger type of lynx
tracks reported as wolf tracks.
If the tracks are affected by
thaw one day they will be impressive, suddenly, we have very clear traces from
our “European tiger”.
