Uncle Henry´s Universe.

Now this year’s inventory of the golden eagle will start. Let’s hope for sunny days and strong winds for the rest of March and early April. The lynx inventory season is over for this winter, but we continue to track wolf and wolverine month out.

I have not found any tracks this week but got nice hiking trips on foot or with snowshoes. It is a wonderful time now at the end of winter, when the night’s minus temperatures quickly turn into heat as the sun rises.

Tracks of red foxes often cross my hike, it´s mating time and you often hear them shouting, even during the day. The woodpecker drums, black grouse play on the marshes and crossbills are full of nesting boards, it goes towards spring.

In the first golden eagle territory I visited during the week, the business was in full swing. Both adult eagles were present and a kid from previous years. They were playing in the wind, seemed to enjoy it. Sometimes the female disappeared into the snow-covered forest to warm the nest for a while, all snow must be removed before hatching can begin.

The large nest is well hidden in the snow-covered forest.

Adeje, Tenerife, the closest place for us Scandinavians to get really nice thermal flying, they said. Weatherproof, they said. No one mentioned hectares of cactus, the calima sandstorm or coronavirus …

My idea was to start the flying season a little nicely, to carefully train the skills for the season. When the local flight guide said that today we fly Jama, and the others in our small group of paraglider pilots – of horror erupted; Oh no – the cactus landing! I knew I was in trouble.

The landing site was quite small, but that was not the problem, it was adequate in other circumstances. But it was thermal, which means that you do not fully know where / when you land. Lifting and sinking relieve each other in an unpleasant way considering all the cactus that surrounded the landing.

If you came in too low, you got to hug the cactus. If it lifted and you went to the right or left, you got to hug the cactus. If you got too far, you got stuck in power lines, before you fell down and got to hug the cactus… I refrained, did not feel like a suitable first flight for the holiday.

I talked to an experienced German pilot and we agreed that the landings were safer at home, where greenery usually meant grass and not cactus like this. I really hate cactus, he said, and that was even before he made his flight and got his knees full of cactus thugs …

Taucho and Ifonche are two fantastic takeoff at Adeje, both with several big and nice landings. From Ifonche I got a nice flight in the area around the fingers and the flat rock. Great views of mountains, canyons, Adeje and the coast down by the sea.

Another flight I unfortunately had to refuse was the flight from the area at the volcano Teide. Too bad, it would have been absolutely fantastic, but security must go first.

I had not seen the landing and had to expect at least 3 minutes of flight through dense clouds before locating it. Without a GPS that you were used to and trusted, the flight was very dangerous. I had just downloaded an app with gps-function but had not gotten to know it yet. Thought it was a badly chosen opportunity to test it for the first time. If you get lost in the clouds, the risk is obvious that you will crash somewhere in the mountains, and so much worse vacation employment is hard to imagine.

The next day it started blowing hard, then came Calima, the sandstorm that burned like a jet engine in the skin. Hard to breathe, hard to see but exciting to experience.

The rest of the holiday was spent on hiking. Not bad employment either.

When the news began to report on coronavirus at a hotel down the coast, that 1,000 people were quarantined, I began to worry a little about the return journey. Being forced to remain in the cactus kingdom for another fourteen days would be a horror. But everything went well. Come home yesterday to bare ground, today the snow is winding down, seems to be tracking again in the coming week.

End of the holiday, wolves and eagles – watch out! I will be back.

Now that the roar of rally cars has been silenced, the fireworks have gone out and thousands of visitors have left my workplace, everything is calm and enjoyable again. The roads around Nyckelvattnet, which I regularly patrol, were a new route for Swedish rally this year. There is no doubt that they drove the route faster than I usually do, but I am also quite sure that I see more animal tracks than they do. It’s a matter of priority! ?

It is an amazing time we have ahead of us, and I do not want to miss a day out of it, but still, you and I are probably beginning to long for hot summer days. Traveling and staying in nature becomes so easy then. – just wait until the stinging insects awaken, then it becomes a different tune! Okay, I know, but it doesn’t help. Blue sky, small fluffy clouds, strawberries and whipped cream … Outstanding!

Or relaxing days in midsummer time with bird song and bumblebees buzzing.

Aaaah, just dream, it’s coming soon. It should only rain a little first, and snow, and blow, and rain and …

No more comment on the weather, there is, say no more …

Continues searching for tracks from lynx, wolverine and wolf. The conditions are difficult, along the same gravel road the surface varies between bare ground, ice or snow cover so deep that I am forced to give up and turn! Spring fungus thrives, small birds sing, the black grouse are in full swing and even a capercaillie rooster played at the top of a pine tree.

Found some weird mushrooms in a spruce forest. Witches cauldron (Sarcosoma globosum), also known as the Charred-Pancake Cup is a near-threatened fungus native to Nothern Europe.

The winds looked promising, so I took a day off and traveled to Ålleberg, a legendary mountain for aviation sports in Sweden. There has been schooled in glider since the beginning of the twentieth century. There is a nice glider museum and a lovely flying spirit.

The winds were weaker than expected, but some small flights were still included during the day. We were some paragliders, some delta wings and a bunch of older men with radio-controlled gliders. It was a pleasant and rewarding day with other aviation enthusiasts, and not least, a day with useful basic handling of the paraglider.

Unfortunately, the landing site was quite wet and muddy, so there was some after-work that night. The equipment must be cleaned and dried.

… The week ended with a little wolf tracking and a wolf poop, so it was a pretty good week anyway.

Thank you for keeping your thumbs up, winter came back but unfortunately a bit short. But it was beautiful as long as it lasted. Up in the mountains it´s still pretty good with snow but down in the lowlands it looks more like spring.

I searched for tracks during the week but found none of interest. A short time between the snowfalls always makes it a little difficult, the animals must move a bit for us to find their tracks.

Hope for better luck in the coming week. The cold seems to stay for at least a few more days.

It is considered very kitschy with sunsets, I know, but they still feel like a gift when you go home after a hard day’s work!

This work week has largely been about heavy work with chainsaws. Tiring but still nice for the body, it gives good night’s sleep.

The weather is slowly moving towards winter again, at least there is a minus degree at night. Next week it may even be some snow, we’ll see, keep your thumbs up for it to be so. It would be nice with a little more tracking before it is time for the inventory of golden eagles again.

On the same day but different years …

In 2018 I had to dig out our roof ladder for the chimney sweeper, from 70 cm of packed snow… This year I might invite him on a chanterelle sandwich … Hmm!

In February, is often time for the Savolax Memorial, a skiing competition in memory of the forest Finnish culture in our area. The competition is 25 km long and goes through the Danshallmyren nature reserve. Anyone who think it’s being arranged this year?

The heat continues … No winter in sight! Forced to stop work on predator tracking and start with nature reserves again. Never happened before. Weird times!

The Arabic name Rub al Khali means “empty quarter”, and it is the world’s largest sand desert, located on the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula and encompassing southern Saudi Arabia as well as parts of Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Last week, news came out that Qabus ibn Said, Sultan of Oman has died, 79 years old – after ruling the country since 1970. When my wife and I visited Oman in 2010, I got the impression that the Sultan was highly respected and loved by everyone I talked to. He seemed to care for the nation’s citizens and had apparently paid everyone’s debts on some occasions … (I don’t know the whole story, haven’t researched it further, think it’s such a good story that I leave it there) He has probably done much more than that, Oman has long been a safe and prosperous oasis in an otherwise quite troubled corner of the world.  

Qabus ibn Said is now succeeded by his cousin, former Minister of Culture Haitham bin Tariq Al Said. I don’t know anything about him, but he looks very friendly on the pictures available on the net. I hope and believe that he will become a wise and kind Sultan and wish this amazing country all the best for the future.

We rented a car and explored the area around Salalah, along the Indian Ocean with playful dolphins, rays and sea turtles, up the mountain towards Yemen with breathtaking views and out to the desert with sand and sand and sand.

Enjoyed the rich bird life around the oases, put on warning flashers as we stopped for passing camel caravans and tested the local cuisine. (dried camel meat rolled in dried camel fat gave the experience of fatty food a new meaning …)

With bare feet in warm sand, the desert is a breathtaking experience, especially as soon as you think of the scorpions … But it was amazing how fast the sand got cold as the sun went down. When dusk fell, several large beetles suddenly crept around us in the dunes, wondering if they were scarab beetles.

Slept under the open sky with only the blanket of the stars. (okay, you also needed a thick blanket around you, it got terribly cold). The starry sky was amazing, as everyone had said it would be in a desert far from civilization and its illumination. But must still admit that it did not differ in any remarkable way, from the one at home over our little cabin in the woods.

I froze from time to time and woke up several times during the night, followed the full moon that went up at my feet and passed over my head the last time I saw it. At dawn I was awakened by the insistent cry of a fox. Probably an Rüppell’s fox (Vulpes rueppelli) or maybe a Blanford´s fox (Vulpes cana). Both are quite small foxes with big ears, as the locals described them. Never saw it but heard the sound slowly diminish and disappear in the distance as the sun rose over the dunes.

Where did winter go, anyone who has seen it?

I tried to work for a few days, but it felt pointless to slip around on icy roads. The snow melted and became heavy and wet to work in and strong winds overturned one and another tree. I took time off instead, went through paragliding equipment, repacked some rescue parachutes and dreamed about coming adventures.

A glass of red, something good to munch on, a nice program on TV and a seductive nice sofa corner … Friday night, not bad … not bad at all!

Happy weekend everyone.