Saturday 3 November 2012

My beautiful way to work.

I have about 5 Swedish miles to drive to work. That is roughly 31 English miles.


A Lot of my colleagues think that is too far. They can’t understand that I love driving my beautiful road to and from work. Don’t get me wrong I do not like the actual driving, but I do love the rout I drive. Very often I stop at the lake and take some photos. I get to se some beautiful animals. Once I met a fox. He crossed the road and then stood at the side of the road looking at me. I had my camera ready on the dashboard I lifted the camera aimed an shot, well that’s what I thought I did, but no I pressed the button that switches off the camera. I have never forgotten him.

 

 

I love this willow tree.

The tree is so beautiful and from here I can take photos of the various birds without disturbing them. I have found that taking photos is the most mindful thing I can do. I get so absorbed with taking photos that I probably could get run over by something with out noticing. I love flowers and I love the sky with clouds and beautiful scenery, but the thing I love the most is wild animals in there natural habitat. I’ve never had the urge to go to Africa, although I must admit I wouldn’t say no given the opportunity. It’s not the exotic I’m after it’s the ordinary; those animals we take for granted and hardly bother to learn about.

 

One may think that a common bird is easy to photograph but they are not.

Take a magpie for instance, you see them everywhere and think that taking a good picture would be a piece of cake. You couldn’t be more wrong.  A magpie is a very wary bird and is not afraid of a moving car. Oh, but should you stop and roll down the window or open the car door it’s gone. I have yet to take the perfect picture of a magpie and I have understood that doing that takes a lot of planning, like animal pictures often does.  Once or twice you do get lucky. Like this geese chaos that was purely a mistake but turned out quite fun. I was trying to sneak up on them while they were having lunch on a meadow opposite the lake but tripped on something and made a noise and that was it. Remember, I am strictly an amateur

 

My true love amung birds is the Red Kite


 I can not help it, they fascinate me tremendously. They are intelligent, opportunistic and ruthless scavengers that have come very close to becoming extinct just for those reasons. The kite is also very vulnerable to environmental toxins. Sweden has taken the led to help them recover by feeding them in different places through the hard winter months. Archaeology believes that Kites have been living in Sweden for thousands of years. We now estimate that we have around 2000 couples. In days gone by the kite was a migratory bird and the old people say it came with spring to the south of Sweden around the 20th of March  Now it seems to have changed its habits and only the young birds migrate and the nesting couples stay. 

Below is a link to a very interesting article about the kite project in Sweden. It’s in Swedish but I’m sure you can Google translate it and make something out of it.  


                                        One of my darlings who made me fall deeply in love

 

 
http://www.kristianstadsbladet.se/kristianstad/article1333383/Gladan---en-elegant-skaringnsk-flyttfaringgel.html