birds Archives - Nine Years in Norway

daydreaming of lazy days in Spain

September 8, 2015 by Cindi 11 Comments

Early this year during the dreary month of February, I shared a post remembering Spain’s summer light. Our week there in August 2014 was warm and relaxing, and I’m glad I have those memories … especially as it’s been a cool and rainy summer in this part of the world.

The Summer of 2015 didn’t offer too many warm enough days to comfortably spend out on my bench listening to the sounds of the boats on the fjord below me and the seagulls in the air above. And with this late-arriving and cool summer, the area birds have had difficulties finding food, and those at our feeder are a little more intense and frantic to gather seed. While sitting on my bench watching them for a few chilly moments recently, I started daydreaming of the warm, relaxing hours in the outdoor living room of our friend’s Spanish home, many of those hours spent watching Marbella’s birds riding the winds in the sky above me …

… or perched on a far-off tree, outdoor furniture, or just above me on our rooftop …

… or flying along the Mediterranean, in the same area where I’d earlier spent some time with Salvador Dalí …

The photos of dots in the sky aren’t very clear of individual birds … but looking at them helps me recapture the feeling of space, light, and warmth. Daydreaming of balmy temperatures and sunshine filled skies: You’ve been missed this year!

a walk beside the Des Moines River

January 6, 2015 by Cindi 19 Comments

I’ve been to Iowa often to visit family, and as my past visits in Ottumwa have drawn to a close I’ve always been a little frustrated that, once again, I didn’t get out to take photos of the Des Moines River from the Ottumwa Trail or walk around downtown a bit to take in the history and architecture of this area.

This trip I did both for a couple hours, and this post shares a few photos of the river walk. Summertime would have provided better scenery for the river area, as it was December 12th, winter-bare, and not very colorful. But I enjoyed watching the force of the rain-and-melted-snow swollen river as it passed under the numerous bridges …

December 12, 2104 - walk beside the Des Moines River

… the winter antics of the seagulls and Canadian geese as they rested on the ice, flew through the air, and argued among themselves …

… the pigeons roosting on the roof of Bridge View Center, until one was disturbed and they all took off to fly a short loop over the river and return to roost again (a cycle that happened five or six times while I stood there) …

… and, most excitedly, I was rewarded with a bald eagle sighting, something I’ve REALLY wanted to see! My digital photos from my hand-held camera of its majestic flight hunting along the river aren’t very clear, but my minds-eye photos are ones I’ll keep with me for a long time!

Here’s that first photo, cropped; I know it’s not clear, but it was so exciting to see and gives you an idea of the majestic eagle’s flight.

December 12, 2104 - walk beside the Des Moines River

Even in winter with the cold wind blowing, I found a warm place of contentment watching the activities of the birds and seeing how they interacted with the environment on this river that cuts through the center of my country.

After my bird-and-river gazing, I drove across the bridge and captured a few photos of downtown decorated for Christmas — with a winter Iowa sunset backdrop. I’ll share those next time!

Wordless (but not soundless) Wednesday: mountain stream

October 29, 2014 by Cindi 21 Comments

October 13 and 15, 2014 - Wordless Wednesday: mountain stream

up close and personal with a Kjøttmeis

October 26, 2014 by Cindi 26 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that we feed the area birds, several species of which are a new type for me as they aren’t a part of the North American bird life. One group in particular that is new are “Kjøttmeis” (“Great tit” in English); small and energetic, their personalities are fun to watch.

From Wikipedia: The great tit is a distinctive bird, with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies. It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats. Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree. The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks. In most years the pair will raise two broods. The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks. The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.

Kjøttmeis locations in red
Source

They visit our feeder several times a day, and are usually in a group of three or four — or a whole flock of ten or more. This autumn I’ve noticed one that is a little more aggressive than the others; it always lands with its wings outstretched and quivering, frightening off the others so it can get to the seeds first. One often flies towards our big window, hovering in front of it and then alighting on the gutter and, hanging upside down, peeking at its reflection or us inside.

We’ve also experienced something else this year for the first time. As I wrote to Alan, a bird photographer blogger I follow, three times in the last month one of them (perhaps the one hanging upside down seeming to peek in?) has flown into the house through the open sliders. I doubt it’s the same bird … but, the second time I caught it to release it outside, it sat on my finger for a moment before flying off — as if it recognized me and trusted. And a week ago, after I caught it and gently carried it outside in my cupped hands, it sat in my hands for about sixty seconds after I opened them. It stopped panting in fright, and seemed to be really *looking* at me as I talked to it. Maybe it was the same one as before? I finally had to say, ‘that’s it, time to go!’ and gently spread my hands apart so it would fly off.

I felt so honored!

Here’s a fuzzy, quick capture of the panicked look the first time it visited …

September 15, 2014 - kjøttmeis

I haven’t taken the time to photograph it/them the next two times; I’ve just wanted to capture it quickly and release it before it hurt itself slamming against the windows trying to get back outside.

And here are images of them from the past year in their natural environment — outside, flying to the feeder, enjoying the seeds and sunshine, fluffed up against a dreary day’s cold and snow, and being in nature as wild birds are meant to be!

2013 and 2014 - kjøttmeis

A recording of their song is here. I have heard this … but what I hear more often is their chittering and chattering at us when we’re outside — almost as if they’re demanding we go get the seeds and feed them! 🙂

Swans and the Pøyla inlet in Lysekloster

October 18, 2014 by Cindi 23 Comments

Twice this past week I explored a part of Lysekloster that I hadn’t been to yet. I discovered something peaceful and colorful that we’ve driven by often but hadn’t really stopped to savor other than one quick visit back in February to capture images of the local swan family. You saw a sneak peek of last week’s first visit a couple days ago, and on Thursday I went back to explore the trail that begins just past this Pøyla inlet further in anticipation of a future “paintings and photographs” post. But the vividness of the just-past-peak Fall Colors, and especially the swan family and ducks seeming to pose for their photo ops, almost demands its own post.

So here it is. (Click on an image to open the carousel gallery.)

October 13, 2014

October 15, 2014

I sat for quite a while watching the swan family; their grace is something I can’t get tired of, and the cygnets have grown so much they look like small gray adults. But if you listen at 0:33 in this video, you’ll hear a very tiny “peep” — these large children sound just like a tiny chick! And later I was focusing to take a photo of the ducks as they lazily swam in the colorful reflection and heard a loud noise — and looked over to see Papa Swan taking off for a brief flight, his heavy wings beating the water. I didn’t get much of it, but it’s at 1:23.

I’ll leave you with my favorite image from the set. It was going to be my next Wordless Wednesday photo … but I can’t wait that long to share it!

October 15, 2014 - swan in the Pøyla inlet

I’m glad I got out there when I did. We’re getting slammed with wind and rain over the next few days, and I’m sure all the leaves will be blown away and the color will be gone!

(Here is where Pøyla inlet is located on the map.)

Sailing? or should that be Motoring?

August 31, 2014 by Cindi 20 Comments

I hope you’ve been enjoying my Statsraad Lehmkuhl trip so far; I’ve enjoyed reliving the moments! Today I’d like to share the experience of sailing … but since we were on the inner fjords in the Bergen area and no sails could be raised, that should probably read “motoring”!

Are you familiar with Godfrey Marks’ children’s song of 1880 about sailing on the ocean?

Sailing, sailing over the bounding main
Where many a stormy wind shall blow
‘Ere Jack comes home again.

It ran through my head a couple times as we were enjoying our trip. But it’s not an exact description of our experience. The sails weren’t up, the wind wasn’t stormy, and we weren’t out on the bounding main/open seas. So, should it be this refrain instead?

Smoothly motoring over the inland fjord
Where many a wind-swept raindrop fell
and hit-my-Uggs on-the deck-boards.

(Now that you see my true poetic talents, I hope you won’t unfollow me. 😉 )

There have been a couple comments on my previous posts that it looked cold and choppy. Yes, the wind sounds loud in my videos; depending on the side of the ship I was on, especially when facing the Norwegian Sea, it was windy and the waters show that disturbance. But on a ship the size of the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, it was such a smooth trip! We were very comfortable. We know this part of the world; we dressed in layers (and brought hats, gloves, and scarves in a backpack, but didn’t need them), and relished every moment of fresh air, wind, sunshine, clouds, and rain.

And there was always that tarp/canvas to sit under if it got too rainy, and the warmth and coziness of below deck — with food and drink — beckoned.

But I didn’t take advantage of those comforts for very long. I wanted to be OUT in the elements to experience everything!

After leaving the Bergen Harbor, we turned south and traveled next to Askøy, passing under the Askøy bridge while I was downstairs eating and socializing. The video of this part of the journey begins as I came up on deck just in time to see the cruise ship after it had passed us; it turned north while we turned south to travel past Litlesotra, under the Sotra bridge, and continue south between Sotra and Bjorøyna. Just south of Bjorøyna was the half-way point of our journey, and we slowly turned to begin the trip back to Bergen.

Here’s a map of the journey so far; do you see Lysekloster in the lower right of that image? So close, yet so far away from home! 🙂

August 20, 2014 – motoring

Before the short video, here’s a gallery of a few of my favorite images from this first half of the trip. We were sitting on the stern, looking through the side rigging or up towards the sky, enjoying the views of the islands we were passing, the changing shapes of the familiar mountains rising in the distance, and the interplay of sun, white clouds, and rain clouds overhead and off in the distance.

And my video; it includes the cruise ship as she turned north, the bells ringing on the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, the peace of the journey on one side of the ship and the intensity of the wind on the other, and the rain clouds visible as we turned at the half way point of the trip.

Want a sneak peek of what we saw as we were turning?

August 20, 2014 – rainbow

Perfect skies for a trip of this type!

Next weekend it’s the rest of the journey, including my favorite part of the trip: standing (almost) alone on the bow!

Statsraad Lehmkuhl: leaving the Bergen Harbor

August 30, 2014 by Cindi 16 Comments

This week I have had the most fun reliving our short fjord journey as I went through my photos and edited the videos. I’d thought to have a complete “sail trip” post today, but decided it really needs to be broken up even more to avoid a ridiculously long post that would be difficult for anyone to follow. So, today’s photos and short video are about leaving the Bergen Harbor and entering Byfjorden: the beginning of our trip south on the inner fjord waters around Bergen.

As she began to move, I walked from starboard to port and back again, setting my camera on the rail, snapping and recording, capturing the experience of this large ship backing slowly out of her berth and turning about 220 degrees to face the mouth of the harbor and begin the journey. It was so gentle and slow, I had a hard time believing we were moving; of course that makes sense, as there can’t be any heavy waves or wake in a harbor, but the reality was even more quietly intense than I’d expected. The underwater propellers made interesting patterns on the surface of the water (which I was able to capture in the video).

I remember looking at the people standing and watching us, thinking what it must be like for them to see this large ship back and gracefully turn. Perhaps they were a little envious of those of us on board?

After turning, I took one final shot towards Bryggen, with the Fløibanen tracks rising up Fløyen, and Ulriken’s tower barely visible past the rigging.