There are not many snakes in Sweden compared to many other countries but we have one kind of viper that is fairly common. We spot one at least a couple of times each year, and each time we are glad that we did not step on it. This time it was close, but I missed by about half a meter. Usually they feel the vibrations in the ground when you walk, but this one did not react and allowed me to come close to take a picture.
Today is the day when all Swedes celebrate midsummer, the time of the year when the sun hardly sets in most parts of Sweden. As far south as in Svångemåla it only disappears for a few hours but it is never completely dark.
It has been very dry but my wife still managed to collect enough flowers to make a beautiful, traditional bouquet.
There are many very young birds out and about now! Some can hardly fly and mostly sit in the shade waiting for food, like this flycatcher baby.
are very common in Sweden and Svångemåla. Not only do they sing in a very special and beautiful way, they are also good-looking. One of them, Knut, even became a star some years ago when a comedian sung about him :) He was supposedly near-sighted and that created some problems...
The Wagtail couple is very busy feeding at least two "kids". They are big enough to fly shorter distances and it fun to study the interaction.
When I told you yesterday about our wagtail family I mentioned that the very young one was sitting behind a mouse cranium. When I picked it up a couple of hours after the bird had left, I was amazed by how well it was preserved. The small teeth were all there!
It has either had a good dentist or never eaten any candies. It is no wonder that they can destroy almost anything that is not made of metal.
The last time I saw the crane family I could only see the adults. Getting a bit worried but the grass is very high so maybe they were there but I could not see them ?
The wagtail
is, as you know, one of my absolute favorite birds. It looks good, is friendly
towards other birds, as far as I know and is keen on being close when we are
out in the garden. It has even befriended our grass cutting robot and follows
it around.
This summer
alone I have probably about two, three hundred pictures of the couple that has
its nest under one of the roof tiles. We think that it is the same couple that
has stayed there several years now.
Yesterday I
noticed that one of the birds was unusually excited and it took me only a few
minutes to find out why. One of the newborns had landed on the ground and was
unable to get up in the nest again. It sat helpless in a corner behind a small
stone and called out for food and attention. I took a couple of pictures and
moved quickly away. A couple of hours later it was gone and I hope it was not a
predator of some sort that had found it.
When I was waiting outside my the car today a big bird came flying above my head in big circles. I took a few shots and had a quick look at them before I once again looked up and took some more pictures. When looking at them back home I realized that it was two different birds that I had taken photos of, something I had not noticed busy as I was taking the photos :)
The first one is a fish hawk and the one below it is a falcon.
