The end of 2018

Dark, foggy and hardly any colors. The end of the year is near and it is time to leave Svångemåla for the last time this year. The Field is still beautiful but I like it far more when it is full of flowers and birds.

 It was cold when we arrived on the last day of November and frost formed interesting and pretty patterns and formations.

Large parts of Svångemåla are protected as a Biosphere reserve which means that trees that fall down cannot be removed. Looks a bit untidy but the insects and birds love it!

This time of the year everything is wet, wet, wet.

Strong winds blew some weeks ago and took down a large tree that hit our neighbor's barn.  Luckily no one was injured.

Climate change ?

This summer was one of the driest and warmest I can remember. The ground water level sank and several households with their own wells had problems. A large dam not far from Svångemåla is the water reservoar for Kalmar ( a town of about 40,000 inhabitants,  30 k away from Svångemåla ) as well as a fishing lake and a place to go swimming. Due to the dry weather it now looks like this. Hardly any water left, the fish might even die if the winter gets really cold and all the water freeze. If you have read this blog very carefully and got an exceptional memory you might remember this story : http://svangemalanews.blogspot.com/2012/08/airplane-crash.html?m=0  

The landscape now looks very strange and although it is beautiful and dramatic in some ways, it scares me that this is what most lakes might look like in the future.

Note the boat to the far right of the picture!

Pigs :((

The wild pigs are coming back :(   After some months of relative peace, the wild pigs have started to move around and disrupt Svångemåla again. Our neighbors have had a few of them in their garden and a really big one has almost cut off the gravel road to Svångemåla. Something must be done to stop them or they will take over!

Örarevet November 2018

Örarevet is, as most of you know, one of my favorite places. I have already shown several pictures from the small nature reserve and regardless of when I go there I always find new, interesting and beautiful things and scenes to take pictures of. At the bottom of the post is a text in Swedish (from Wikipedia) that gives you some facts. As always, click on the picture to enlarge it!

Örarevet är ett naturreservat i Söderåkra socken i Torsås kommun i Kalmar län.

Området är skyddat sedan 1973 och omfattar 165 hektar, varav 122 är vattenområde. Örarevet är en två kilometer lång rullstensås. Till denna hör ett trettiotal låga holmar och skär, uppbyggda av lösa moränavlagringar.

Örarevet ligger på en gammal samhällighet tillhörig Gunnarstorps by. Revet utgörs av en rullstensås som sträcker sig som en lång udde söderut i Kalmarsund. På själva revet finns flera fornlämningar och spår av gammal bebyggelse. Innanför revet ligger en moränskärgård var rika fågelliv och ovanliga vegetation har motiverat bildandet av naturreservatet.

Den sydligaste delen av Örarevet kallas Stuvenäsören, och därutanför ligger Örahuvudet som en separat ö. Miljön här påminner om den på Gotland med vindpinade tallar strandvallar av klappersten. En liten fiskarstuga ligger ute på Stuvenäsrören och en på Örahuvudet. På Stuvenäsrören finns även rester av skansar från 1600-talet.

Autumn

Autumn is not my favorite time of the year. It gets dark early and the sun comes up late. Not many birds are around but the colors are just amazing!

Apple tree and birds

Despite the severe drought we have had most of this summer, the apple trees have managed to produce a lot of apples. Most of them are small but sweeter than normal. The birds are taking advantage of the situation and try to get to them before we do :)

Once again a bird with a funny looking head. Can it be the one I saw much earlier this year?

The bird of the year!

Every year a particular bird dominates both what we see and what we hear. Most of the time it is the wagtail that can been seen and heard all the time but this year I think the Common blackbird (Turdus merula) has played that role. I have not been able to find out where they got their nests but there have been and still are a lot of them. Many of them have spent time in our juniper bush eating its berries. 

Apples

It has been a very HOT and DRY summer as you have seen in previous postings. Despite the lack of rain the apple trees are full of fruit that might never get really ripe. If we cannot get a big harvest, they are already very appreciated by the wasps and birds :)

Nuthatch

A very nice little bird is the Eurasian nuthatch or wood nuthatch (Sitta europaea) . From what I have read it is the only bird that can walk head first down a tree!  

Flowers and bumblebees

The bumblebees have enjoyed the many flowers that have survived the drought thanks to my wife's hard work watering them every day. In particular the Calibrachoa or Million bells is a favorite! 

No blueberries:(

Due to the dry and hot weather most berries have just dried up like these blueberries.