We have spent the day on the bird island Runde on the western coast of Norway. We did a long hike up to the sea bird colony and saw so many birds I've never seen before. I took pictures with my camera, not my cell phone, and don't have the equipments I need to transfer the images from the camera to the computer with me. I hope to share another post with you after coming home, with a few of my bird photos, today I just want to share with you words I heard from the owner of the camp site where we started our hike:
"I was born here. I know everything about everything"
Quite a motto, isn't it :-) I think I will bring it with me.......I was born here, I know everything about everything :-)
We have several bird houses around our house and in the garden, and also in the woods surrounding our cabin. In one of them there is a camera. I got it as a Christmas present back in 2015, two weeks after our first grandchild was born (I told my husband that this was something a proper grandma needed). We hung it in the spring, and have been waiting for birds to build a nest and have their chicks there ever since. And this year it is finally going to happen.......hopefully.
A few days ago Mr and Mrs great tit started to fill the bottom of the house with moss, then slowly adding feathers and other soft materials which they could carry in their beaks. They always fly together, but from what I can see, it is the female who is the builder, the male follows her around, almost lika a guard. Mrs great tit is spending her nights in the bird house now, I can watch her via our television screen. She comes in while it is still light, and before going to sleep, she spends several hours working on the nest, forming it, her only tools her beak and her body. So far it a bed for herself, but not long now and she will have quite a few eggs to fill the nest. I have read that great tits can have as many as 18 eggs, as little as 3.
It is very exciting being able to follow the process up close. And the share it with you.
I feed the garden birds almost all year round, which rewards us with quite a lot of different birds. Among our favourites are the great spotted woodpeckers. They are at our cabin also, and some times we even see European green woodpecker there, and even from time to time some of the other woodpeckers which you can find in Norway.
I had breakfast out in the garden this morning when this guy came and had his breakfast together with me. Yes, he is a male, something I can see from the red spot on his neck.
It is a lovely summer day here in my corner of the world today. I plan to spend it out in the garden, mostly weeding, sorting out a few plants, enjoying the beauty of it all. A privilege now when I am retired.
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The book in the above picture, A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier, have you read it? I love it and will talk more about it another day. Now when I am back to blogging, I have so many plans.......
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An updated the list of my active blogs:
Akeleiehagen - The Blue Garden (click on the picture)
Fløy en liten blåfugl - my birding journal (click on the picture)
maskerade - my knitting journal (click on the picture)
Britt Arnhilds dagboksblader - my online journal (click on the picture)
Nederst i hagen - my greenhouse diary (click on the picture)
Britt Arnhilds naturdagbok - my nature journal (click on the picture)
Hytteliv på Rastarbo - cabin life (click on the picture)
Terje and I are spending the weekend at the cabin. Winter, but no snow, tough some very wet snowflakes are falling from time to time, but melt quite fast. Used as I am to a white world at this time of the year, the winter green nature fascinates me. Wet, lush in a kind of deep, sparkling green way, a few songbirds out even at this time of the year, days still short.
Inspecting the nest boxes is what we always do at this time of the year, before the birds start looking for a place to lay their new eggs. But look, what has happened to this box? To hole is way to big for a tit or a flycatcher! Who is the sinner? A squirrel? A woodpecker?
We have no idea. But as a pair of flycatchers come back here every years to breed, Terje changes the nest box with another one we have, with a hole the correct size.
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I had a bad fall in the wet, slippery snow just outside our cabin this morning. Hurt my left index finger badly, a finger which is essential when I knit. So here I am, updating blogs instead of knitting. So far today two other blogs have been updated:
Summer in April is not something we experience every year here where I live. But these days we are having such a lovely weather. The colours in the garden are exploding, there will hopefully be more garden posts here in the days to come, and the birds are super busy.
Terje and I skipped church today (yes, I know we shouldn't.......) and spent all day in the garden instead.
While we had our morning coffee (Jane, you know all about our non-calory coffees.......) a male house sparrow was busy building his nest. It was amazing to watch how fast he worked with his beak.
For many years the house sparrows were the most common song birds here. They they seemed to have left us for several years, but now they are fully back. I love them. Gray and somewhat plain as they might look, they really are among my favourites. And a children's song about a little house sparrow boy is the song I sang most for Leander when he was a baby, and now sing for Milian.
I went back to the river yesterday, and was lucky. The swans were close by.
I was busy with m y camera,
and had great fun.
Whooper swans are beautiful, aren't they?
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Today I havde finished and posted a new podcast. Sorry in Norwegian only, but the first part is a walk along the river Nidelven downtown, and you need not understand Norwegian to see enjoy the beauty.
I used to be so much more confident doing cross country skiing than I am now. My body feels too stiff, what if I fall? So when Marta came home Sunday morning and went out skiing with Terje, I drove down to the river, bird watching.
Another bird watched was there already, with a bag full of breads, making quite an activity among the birds.
We have been up in the mountains today, to the special bird watching place we found last year. The Teide bird, the blue finch, was there, and a few others :-)
All texts and photos by Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland
About me
About me
I am living in a red house surrounded by a blue garden near Trondheim, Norway. I love everydays and post about my steps through life. Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods is open to everybody. Welcome over!
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