5 days at my cabin – day 5

I had left my Little Acorn camera out overnight at the cabin to see if any animals came to visit.  I was surprised next morning to see that a Reindeer had been to visit in the middle of the night.

Myself and Erik walked in the forest.  We eventually decided to stop and make fire,

and cook coffee and some lunch.

Close to where we made fire, we found a couple of really nice Birch burs.

Later during our walk, we found a site where a fox had killed a Capercaillie.

I could not understand why there was a lot of mouse droppings in one are, but then realised that this was actually the crop contents and that this bird had recently been eating Birch leaf buds.

We spent the afternoon fishing but again did not catch anything.

At 6pm we loaded our kit in the valp and Erik gave me a lift to my car.  As we drove along the track I had walked to the cabin on, I spotted fresh bear tracks.

The tracks were from the previous day and it was not a particularly large bear that had made them, so if we had travelled in the opposite direction the previous evening we might of seen it.

A cold weekend at the cabin

Spring is going to be late this year.  A cold north wind has been blowing for three weeks now and although the sun lifts day time temperatures just above freezing, at night temperatures can still go down as low as -30 degrees.

I arrived at the cabin Friday evening and made fire in both the kitchen stove and in the fireplace.  After a couple of hours the cabin was warm and with a night time temperature of -20 degrees I kept the fires going all night.

Early on Saturday morning I cooked breakfast; potatoes, sausage, eggs and onions.

I spent some time ice fishing, but it was very cold and I caught no fish, so I decided to do some photography.

There were several different birds coming to the bird feeder and I particularly wanted to photograph Siberian Tit and Siberian Jay.  Siberian Jay’s were not so difficult to photograph.  After standing for 15 minutes they came to feed.

To get VERY close to the Siberian Tit’s, I put a reindeer skin on the snow, and some food just in front of me and laid there and waited for them to come down.  It proved more difficult than expected to get photo’s of them because they kept flying down and sitting on my head!!  Eventually they came for the food.

On Sunday, while out in the forest with my snowmobile I came across some very strange tracks.

I called my friend and neighbour at the cabin Erik, and explained what I had found and he drove out immediately to take a look.  Eventually we deduced that the spore was that of a displaying male Capercaillie.

We followed the tracks on our snowmobiles and found this fine print where the bird had originally landed (from the right you see where the tail touched the snow, then where the body impacted and finally the imprints of the wings, then he walks away displaying).

This is what the display looks and sounds like.

A few photographs

To coincide with starting my new photographic blog;
http://naturallorephotos.wordpress.com/

I thought I would put up a few pictures taken recently.

First a couple of sunrises as I have driven to work

In this next picture I am heaping snow up around a cabin to act as additional insulation.

Here is one of the seven reindeer we have at Solberget Vildmarksbyn

This next picture (for me) provides lots of  interesting information once you understand how to interpret it….

This picture shows spore from a Black Grouse landing in the snow.  From the right lower corner of the picture you see first where the Grouses tail mark in the snow, then above it you see the tip of the right wing and then marks from the whole of the right wing and at the same time, the body coming into the snow.  Then you can see footprints as the bird lands and the impact point as it lands into the snow (with left and right wing marks).  Finally the bird turns around and runs away out of the top right hand corner of the picture.

The next picture is of the tipi at Solberget, with a glowing fire inside

and finally here is a picture of a cabin at Solberget at dusk, with a the full moon behind it.

Solberget Vildmarksbyn

 

Yesterday I began working as a tourist guide at Solberget Vilmarksbyn as part of a work experience scheme with the local job centre.

Yesterday we took guests out on a ski tour around the local marshes.

We could not travel across the marshes because the ice was thin and there was water under the snow.

Water on skis freezes immediately and has to be removed.  Fortunately Dirk had a gas burner in his rucksack

We heard and found much evidence of Willow Grouse (Lagopus lagopus).  In the picture below they had been feeding on Birch buds

Willow Grouse have feathers on their feet so you cannot see toes in their tracks

In this picture a Willow Grouse has landed in the snow (you can see the wing pattern) and then run away.

We also saw many Red Squirrel tracks

After three hours, we returned to Solberget Wilderness Village

After the Reindeer had been fed this morning

we headed off into the forest on another ski tour to the top of Solberet (Sun Hill translated to English).

We skied uphill for about one hour until we reached a cabin and fire-watch tower

Once inside the cabin we made a fire

and had lunch

After lunch we returned to Solberget.

Roe Deer and a new use for a parachute.

This morning when I went outside I saw a lot of fresh tracks near the door and on the garden.  On close inspection I could see that they were Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) tracks.

There were at least two individuals and they had walked all over the garden

They had also dug down in the snow to find food

They had even been to inspect the new garage I have built for my car using three poles and a parachute.

As you can see from the pictures, it has been snowing quite a bit now and the temperature outside  as I write this is -20 so I need some protection for my car.

I keep my parachutes wrapped up individually in dry-bags and after randomly selecting a parachute to use, I was pleased to find my Fiskars hatchet (which I thought I had lost) at the bottom of the bag!  The last time I had used the parachute was when teaching a group of children firelighting skills here in Nattavaara and some of the children had helped me pack my kit away.  At some point one of the children must have put my hatchet in the bag before the parachute was put in.

New species at my cabin and a wood burner

Using an old 20 litre oil drum I found on the side of the road and a piece of metal drain pipe, I have made a small wood burning stove to use on the veranda at my cabin.

I put 25mm sand in the bottom to help protect the bottom of the oil can.  I drilled a series of holes around the can, 15cms up from the bottom as air intakes.  The door has a diameter of 25cms and the drain pipe/flue has a diameter of 9cms.

It burns very well and very efficiently and provides a good source of heat when sitting out in the evenings.

A new bird species sitting in a tree calling was a beautiful male Pine Grosbeak/Tallbit (you can listen to the call on the page I have linked too).

Another new species so close to my cabin was completely unexpected!!

When I looked out of the cabin window I saw some large footprints

On closer inspection I could see they were from a Wolf.  The best print I have covered with a tin lid to protect it.  The Wolf must have walked around the cabin the previous evening (it gets dark at 5 now) when the ground was wet.  Then later in the evening the temperature dropped to -6 and froze the ground leaving perfect prints

This particular print measured 11.5cms.

The gait measured exactly 100cms.

Here’s a picture of another bird that is resident at my cabin now, but can you see what it is??……..

I’ve learnt something new about beavers

I was out yesterday evening to try and get more photographs of the beavers near the house.  I watched a beaver swimming across the water and close to the river bankedge, it dived under the water and did not appear again.  I moved to the area where the beaver had disappeared and as I walked quietly towards the edge of the water I noticed some pieces of branch that the beaver had eaten, laying on the ground.

As I looked at them, the grass moved underneath them and I thought at first it was a vole moving in the grass, but as I watched a piece of branch was being pushed up through the grass from under ground.  As I moved nearer, I heard the beaver run underground and go into water.  In this picture I have pushed on of the branches into the hole (it was about 30cms deep).

Further along the river edge I found another burrow, but this time the beaver has been coming out of the burrow to access trees further away from the river edge

Here is a picture from inside the burrow

I have been searching on the internet but cannot find any reference to this behaviour.

The lemmings are coming!!

I had heard reports that for the first time in many many years there has been an unusually large explosion in the Lemming (Lemmus lemmus) population in the mountains.  This used to happen on a regular cycle every four years but now it is a much rarer occurrence to have such a large increase in population and no one seems to know why the increase occurs.

The Lemming is a large rodent up to 15cms long and easy to spot due to its variegated colours of black, yellow and rusty brown.  Density of Lemmings in very good years can be up to 250 per hectare.  When the population density becomes to high the Lemmings travel to other areas, crossing streams and rivers and covering great distances.

A female Lemming can have 6 litters per year and a litter will consist of up to 12 young.  The young females become sexually mature at 20 days old.

Having never seen a Lemming I decided to walk up to the top of Dundret mountain in Gallivare on Wednesday

to see if I could find any

There was a very cold northerly wind and it was snowing, with a temperature of about -5 degrees.

I spent three hours searching what looked like good habitat

There was much vole spore

but nothing to suggest that Lemmings were there.

I had to shelter behind a small rock to make fire and cook food and coffee, using dead Pine and Juniper as fuel

Today however, we decided to drive along the road to Ritsem to see if we could find any Lemmings.

We had probably driven about 25kms when we started seeing Lemmings which had been run over on the road

and it wasn’t too long before we saw our first Lemming running across the road.  I had to chase after several before I finally caught up with one

We saw about 15 live ones in total and this one was particularly obliging as we drove back home

Enjoying the spring sunshine

We have been out and about enjoying the spring sunshine.

We found some really nice rodent tracks in the snow

I imagine they are a vole walking between holes but I am not certain…any help appreciated.

With a bit of practise I have regained my firelighting skills

We cooked some coffee

and cooked sausage

Lapland in early spring

Nature is becoming more and more active here now with all the beautiful sunny days we are having with temperatures around 0 degrees.

I have been spending some time out and about.  The other day I was out collecting the outer layer of Birch bark now being shed by the trees, for use in demonstrating fire lighting later in the year

The Blue tits, Great Tits and Willow Tits are singing in the forest, the Woodpeckers are drumming and the Crossbills have nests with eggs and will soon have young.  The Siberian Nutcracker appears to have left us now and has probably commenced his journey back to Siberia.

While out walking I noticed what looked like recent activity by the Beaver who lives near our house.

On closer inspection I found much fresh activity

and fresh wood chips on the snow from where he had been gnawing

There was also a clear trail in the snow where it had been dragging branches (seen here in the middle of the picture)

which led me to this hole

situated on the edge of the river bank. allowing the Beaver access under the ice and into the river, to carry its food across to the lodge.

You can see disturbance in the snow around the edge of the hole caused by small branches as the Beaver drags pieces of Birch down the hole.

I have spent a couple of evenings laying out in the snow until well after dark, waiting for the Beaver to appear

but so far I have not seen it.