Autumn and winter in Finland 2013 and 2014

[ame]

then i started driving further but soon i saw that there were two giant snow balls floating in the water in front of the next beach so i had to stop again and have a closer look at them: two mute swans.
i walked slowly to the water front because i didn't want to scare them, but no worries. they were so focused on their breakfast which they were pulling out of the bottom of the water that they didn't seem to even notice me. but unfortunately the phone's camera is not very good. the birds weren't further than about 30 m from me, but i didn't get any good pictures. this is the best: the other swan has lifted its head out of the water. -this second place where i stopped is pretty much the place where the arrow points in the map above.


after taking a few pictures i looked around and something caught my attention in the North: there seemed to be a big dark something on the ice near the border of the open water. there had been some hooded crows flying around and standing on the ice but this dark thing looked bigger than a crow.... so i jumped back in the car and drove further and stopped on the next beach (there are swimming places every few hundred meters there along the road). i walked to the waterfront and now i was close enough to see and in a few seconds i could hear it, too:
calls of WTEs!

there were at least two of them, probably three and maybe even a fourth one. they were standing on ice near to the open water maybe some 300 m from the beach. i knew that they were too far to get any picture of them, but i tried to make a video where their voices could be heard. but alas! before i had found the video camera from my phone they had sung their songs and they just stood there. i think that the possible fourth eagle flew away to the Western shore while the others stayed near the waterline.

at home i saw that the only (!) picture which i had taken did not even show black spots on the ice (which was the most i had hoped) and videos showed nothing. i could only hear a voice of a hooded crow so i think that i would have caught the calls of the eagles if they had called when i was recording....
so this picture is the only thing i can show of my eagle observation today. i have marked there the approximate area where i think the eagles were.
this is rather funny: a few years a ago in this situation i would have thought: "hmmm... some crows on the ice... and some gulls are calling." but today i knew what these birds really were.

[ame]

Don't tell me you would have gone in hadn't there been ice?
...

ehhhmmm.. it is not totally out of the question....
i've done it once with such ice but not so tightly packed, there was ice like this floating freely. that was not a good idea. it was like going swimming among floating knives. the floating thin ice pieces are razor sharp...

[Felis silvestris]

Wow! How lucky you were Ame! I think a camera and binoculars are a must to be taken in a car! Maybe next time you visit your father and take this route again? Keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks for sharing the experience and the pictures! Here it is still too warm for ice or snow - I was out for a short round for my lunch break, in the sun is was really warm and almost like spring! The snow is in Egypt and Israel and Turkey at the moment! Crazy!

Olga, I hope the squirrels come again soon and the black woodpecker will come to have your fat balls! Good night for now!


Ame - swimming with the ice instead of dolphins

[Olga]

Hi, ame What nice that some one else from Finland posts here too, and not only me!
Great story!

[Manu]

Ame: Wow, what a lucky one you were to see some WTE's . What a great experience!!!!

[Olga]

Videos and screencaptures from 7th to the 10th December:

7th December

Charley


---

[Olga]

8th December

Charley

[Olga]

9th December

Castana

[Olga]

10th December

Three Red Squirrels:

[ame]

today i made another trip to the countryside, this time to our summerhouse. usually we never drive there in the wintertime, because there's nothing to do. this time i had a Christmas tree to pick from there. a few years ago one spruce seedling began to grow right next to the house so it had to go. this year it became tall enough for a Christmas tree. one more year and it would have become too big. so i packed a saw in the car and drove there.

fortunately the big storm a week ago had done no harm at our place. two years ago the storm on Boxing day fell a lot of trees around the house and near the shore.
here's a view over the lake. it was very cloudy and quite calm. it seems that we are going to have a black Christmas at least in Southern Finland: no snow is expected.


the lake had no ice so this time i did go to have a very quick dip in the water. this was no impulse but a premeditated idea: it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do this.
the temperature of air was almost 2 degrees and the water was slightly less but clearly above 1 degree, so you can imagine that i did not stay long in the water, just long enough to draw about 2 and half strokes.

my toes went numb for quite a long time but otherwise i didn't feel cold.

the water was chrystal clear. i didn't see or hear a living soul all the time that i spent there, not even a beep from a tit...


then i fell the spruce and squeezed it inside the car. one more year and it would have been too long for the car, too. on the way home i had a lovely smell in the car but no view in the rear-view-mirror.

on the way home it began to drizzle more and in the end it almost turned into rain...

Olga
i take a pictures or such so seldom that i haven't anything mcuh to post here.... maybe i should do it more often.
you have your furry squirrels posing to you all the time.

[Felis silvestris]

One of our dark brown squirrels was around a few times today, but as luck had it, the first time I did not have the camera outside and by the time I had it out, squirrel was gone. The second time the camera was outside, but I was just in a conversation with my boss - it would have been a bit awkward to say "wait, I have to make a photo first" and the third time I again did not have the camera ready and was in a hurry to move to a different working place for 2 hours

Ame - except for the dip in the water everything sounds nice. But the water was definitely 20° too cold!

[macdoum]

ame are you foolhardy or crazy

[Lena101]

Hey ame, that was really brave (and a little crazy?). The coldest water I ever swam in had 14 degrees C.
There are people in Germany who dig holes in frozen lakes and take a bath and they say, it is very healthy. I hope it is and you did not catch a cold.

[ame]

ame are you foolhardy or crazy

or both...
i'm feeling fine now. actually my feet feel now warmer than usually. - in Finland (and in other Nordic countries as well) there are people who go regularly swimming in an opening made in ice during winter time. these people say that they never get a flu. i'm too lazy to do this because i would have to take a car and drive to one of these winter swimming places and that seems too much trouble for me. but if a hole in the ice or icy water comes on my way then no-one knows what should happen.
i have some sort of a drive to dip in in all kinds of water holes. i must be a little bit whacked....

[Olga]

And this way we are back on the Squirrel hill:

11th December
Mops Jr standing on the branch









..Hi, what's going on there?? Please, tell me..

[Olga]

...11th December

Mops Jr eating







-*sigh*..it's so calm here. I like it, it's so good for me, a little but handsome squirrel boy

[Olga]

11th December

The Small ear youngster.

[Manu]

Mops Jr. and the youngster look so cute with their wet tassels

[Olga]

correction
12th December:

There was one more little edited video of the Small ear youngster:

The video is on the next post. There are two squirrels on the same video.

[Olga]

Oh, there were two squirrel on the same video on the 12th December: the Small ear youngster and Castana!



- The weather is so wet that it's all the same to sit on the water bowl!




- Well, are you watching at me?


..and what are you laughing at me there??