After our four month field trip in Turkey, Sweden and the UK, Sarah and I arrived back to our bush home last Wednesday evening. We were tired, but happy to be back in familiar surroundings.
Puffin heaven! – 38,000 of these adorable little birds pack onto the Farne Islands, a dozen rocky islets off the north-east coast of England.
We set out from Seahouses, a small town on the east Northumberland coast. It was a sunny day with barely a puff of wind, which boded well for Andrew who was hoping to get some recordings.
Our small tug boat departed at 10am, and en route we observed Grey Seals lolling on the rocky outcrops amongst the kelp as the sea crashed and sprayed around them.
In 1977, I was given the book Gnomes (written by Wil Huygen and beautifully illustrated by Rien Poortvliet) by my aunt Sally when I was 8 years old – It instantly became my favourite book. I used to pour over the stories and pictures, explaining the habits, family life and mythology of Gnomes, Trolls and the Snotgurglers (my personal favorite for the name alone), never imagining I would one day visit Scandinavia – homeland of the Gnome!
We are staying in a cottage that backs onto a long distance wilderness walking track that meanders its way through Sweden’s national parks and forests. We were rained in the first three mornings, but today I was up at 2am, and made my way along the track.
Driving out of Stockholm, our first impression of Sweden was of a landscape that seemed like a never-ending golf course.
That doesn’t sound very appreciative, does it? It is probably inspired by the mixture of woodlands and grassy fields, and the sense of a landscape tended with care for generations. Add in the quaint farmhouses with traditional red-stain wood buildings, and a proliferation of beautiful lakes, and Sweden is a very picturesque country.
After two months of travelling through Turkey making nature recordings, our final morning in the forests turned out to be a wonderful culmination of all that we have experienced here – a lovely conclusion to our time in this fascinating country.
After many weeks of exploring Turkey’s forested and more wilderness landscapes, it came as a pleasant surprise for us to discover how rich in birdlife her agricultural landscapes were.
During our time in Turkey, we have often found recording a good variety of birdsong difficult and perplexing. Forests where we anticipated symphonies of birdsong were eerily quiet, or we’d find birds singing heartily, only to realise we were hearing species found commonly throughout Europe.
At times like these we’d console ourselves with our antipodean ignorance Continue Reading »
Those of you in the northern hemisphere who have endured a grueling winter will probably be over the novelty of snow. But for us Australians, it is great to be playing in the white stuff for the first time in many years.