quidnovis61

Aah, the Common Crane is not so common for us  up in the North!

 

Spring is here ... we think... we hope.. .

 

It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I decided to go to town taking the longer route through the countryside - a slow drive instead of the main motorway. Spring is hesitating... its palette is still of sombre browns and beige, the resplendent greens are way off yet but there are signs everywhere you look....The colts foot dot the ditches, the crocuses in the shaded corners light up the entire garden, the snowdrops are every where bringing such joy to the disarrayed winter soul...

 

While driving I was delighted to hear the sudden cacophonous honk-honk and the whirr-rr of huge wings above me.... Cranes! I thought. I stopped on the side of the road... (its a country road and almost no traffic...). And sure enough! There above me against the blue sky was a flock of cranes on their way to the breeding lake called HornborgarLake, a few kms from here.... every year we get nearly 10 to 12 000 cranes (unbelievable!) at the lake, en route to Russia and northern Sweden.

 

The cranes are smart! They go away to warmer places (these chaps have been in Spain since September!!) and return to their cold northern homes when the temperatures are friendlier! Its a delight seeing them in various fields as one drives back and forth doing ones errands ...

 

And so I stopped ...and took a few photos as you can see...

And then just as I started the car to drive on...  two of them decided to cross the road...And very smartly did so while I waited, the engine idling...

 

Signing off for now!

C.S

(Cresat Scientia)

Spring this year is rather astonishingly early in Sweden... I am, at the moment,  not contemplating its rather sombre connotation but just enjoying 'the blue blue sky' and the meagre warmth of a Scandinavian spring sun...

 

In January we drove past the little pond...it was still frozen ...

 

In February we drove past the little pond ... it was still frozen in parts ....but the swans had returned!!!
What joy indeed - the first veritable sign of spring and of hope.

 

 

In March we drove past the little pond....it was not frozen at all... but the vegetation around was still bleak  brown and beige. 

 

 

But Mr & Mrs Swan were there.

 

At first I was a bit perturbed as I saw only one of them...

 

 

...but stepping out of the car I was able to discern Mrs Swan beautifully camouflaged in the weeds and reeds and bullrushes.

 

 

As if reading my thoughts, she sailed elegantly out of the reeds and met up with Mr Swan... looking for food, seemingly enjoying each other's Company in the quiet and the beauty of Nature, re-awakening from a long cold slumber.