Norway picspam
Jun. 8th, 2024 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaI did not expect to have Internet today! Nor electricity. I expected to have to light a woodstove for warmth--but no, Norway has luxuries.
To start from the beginning, dad and I took the train to Oslo the day before yesterday and spent the day with a colleague of Dad’s, who showed off northern Europe’s largest freshwater delta to us (that is, it is a delta which emerges into a large freshwater lake and not the ocean). Presumably there is some larger freshwater delta in southern Europe. There were lots of cool birds, the coolest being the spotted crake, which our host woke me up at one a.m. to hear. A good decision on his part! It's very rare in Sweden and I had never heard it before. Other cool birds: a common rosefinch (not so common!), a marsh warbler (very cool song, apparently mimicking various African birds), prooobably a Eurasian hobby though we couldn't be quite sure. We did more bird watching the next morning and might have heard a hazel grouse (or maybe not).
In the afternoon we went on by train to Finse, at 1200 meters above sea level. About half the ground is still covered with snow up here, and it's not really tourist season, so we're almost alone here. For that reason the cabin belonging to the Norske Turistforening is unmanned, but you can still stay there. You just walk right in and there are beds with blankets, hot showers, a hostel style kitchen, dry/conserved food for sale, wifi, etc. All of this is entirely on the honor system: the visitor is trusted to pay.
I didn't take any interesting pictures of the delta, but Finse is beautiful and deserves some photos. Birds seen so far here: fieldfares, redwings, meadow pipits, yellow wagtail, willow warblers (how strange to see them sitting on rocks!), wheatears, common reed bunting, seagulls, redshanks, common sandpiper, raven, and best of all a bluethroat! So beautiful.
The lowest building is where we're staying. Between those mountains you can see a tongue of the large Hardangerjøkul.
Bombus alpinus defying the snow.
This is Finse train station. The opening away to the right is a tunnel which is over 10 km long!
An unexpected monument to the Scott Antarctic expedition...
...with the text in Norwegian reading "Raised by Northmen 1914 in honour of the spirit of Arctic exploration and courage."
Here you see the difference between the Norwegian mountains and the Swedish ones: all the little private "hytte" (huts). This is not allowed in the Swedish mountains: all the buildings you'll find there are 1) the official Swedish Tourist Association cabins, 2) a few research stations, 3) reindeer herder's huts. I much prefer the Swedish way, which touches the landscape much more lightly.
A sprouting Angelica archangelica.
Some lichens: Cladonia with red fruiting bodies, thin white reindeer lichen (Cladina), brown Cetraria, and grey-white coral-shaped Stereocaulon.
To start from the beginning, dad and I took the train to Oslo the day before yesterday and spent the day with a colleague of Dad’s, who showed off northern Europe’s largest freshwater delta to us (that is, it is a delta which emerges into a large freshwater lake and not the ocean). Presumably there is some larger freshwater delta in southern Europe. There were lots of cool birds, the coolest being the spotted crake, which our host woke me up at one a.m. to hear. A good decision on his part! It's very rare in Sweden and I had never heard it before. Other cool birds: a common rosefinch (not so common!), a marsh warbler (very cool song, apparently mimicking various African birds), prooobably a Eurasian hobby though we couldn't be quite sure. We did more bird watching the next morning and might have heard a hazel grouse (or maybe not).
In the afternoon we went on by train to Finse, at 1200 meters above sea level. About half the ground is still covered with snow up here, and it's not really tourist season, so we're almost alone here. For that reason the cabin belonging to the Norske Turistforening is unmanned, but you can still stay there. You just walk right in and there are beds with blankets, hot showers, a hostel style kitchen, dry/conserved food for sale, wifi, etc. All of this is entirely on the honor system: the visitor is trusted to pay.
I didn't take any interesting pictures of the delta, but Finse is beautiful and deserves some photos. Birds seen so far here: fieldfares, redwings, meadow pipits, yellow wagtail, willow warblers (how strange to see them sitting on rocks!), wheatears, common reed bunting, seagulls, redshanks, common sandpiper, raven, and best of all a bluethroat! So beautiful.
The lowest building is where we're staying. Between those mountains you can see a tongue of the large Hardangerjøkul.
Bombus alpinus defying the snow.
This is Finse train station. The opening away to the right is a tunnel which is over 10 km long!
An unexpected monument to the Scott Antarctic expedition...
...with the text in Norwegian reading "Raised by Northmen 1914 in honour of the spirit of Arctic exploration and courage."
Here you see the difference between the Norwegian mountains and the Swedish ones: all the little private "hytte" (huts). This is not allowed in the Swedish mountains: all the buildings you'll find there are 1) the official Swedish Tourist Association cabins, 2) a few research stations, 3) reindeer herder's huts. I much prefer the Swedish way, which touches the landscape much more lightly.
A sprouting Angelica archangelica.
Some lichens: Cladonia with red fruiting bodies, thin white reindeer lichen (Cladina), brown Cetraria, and grey-white coral-shaped Stereocaulon.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-08 05:29 pm (UTC)Anyway, lovely pictures, thank you for sharing them! How cool about the honour-system cabin.
This is not allowed in the Swedish mountains: all the buildings you'll find there are 1) the official Swedish Tourist Association cabins, 2) a few research stations, 3) reindeer herder's huts.
Huh, how does that work?—are there laws against building things like that, or is it more about different systems of land ownership?
That Cladonia is especially gorgeous. ...Looking it up, I learn that one species with similar red fruiting bodies—C. cristatella, presumably not this one, since it seems to be only found in the Americas—has the English common name 'British soldier lichen'. There you go, you have found a redcoat :D
(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-08 07:28 pm (UTC)Huh, how does that work?—are there laws against building things like that, or is it more about different systems of land ownership?
Both, I think. Norway has much more small privately owned plots of land than Sweden. The state owns most of the mountains in Sweden, though that's disputed by the Sami. And Norway didn't have the land grabbing that the forest companies did in Sweden around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries (hmm, I wonder why they didn't). But even if you did own a plot of land in/near the mountains in Sweden, I don't think you'd necessarily be allowed to build a cabin on it. We were wondering about the cabins in the picture: do the owners of the cabins also own a small patch of land around it? Hmm. I guess we'll ask a Norwegian person about it.
There you go, you have found a redcoat :D
Ha, that's awesome! : D
(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-09 12:59 pm (UTC):D :D
That's really interesting about the legal and historical differences, thank you!
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Date: 2024-06-08 06:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-08 07:29 pm (UTC)Fabulous! Fabulous! Fabulous! photos.
Date: 2024-06-08 07:50 pm (UTC)Guess you won't be swimming in those lovely still waters -- is that the fjord or a freshwater lake? Is the Turistforening "cabin" the two-story building with 2 doors and 12 windows?
The bee is a surprise to me, but plants gotta pollinate somehow.
Re: Fabulous! Fabulous! Fabulous! photos.
Date: 2024-06-09 07:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-06-08 09:20 pm (UTC)I nodded my head at common rosefinch (not so common!) as a few years ago in Arizona I saw a common black-hawk which is also not so common in the US - it is only seen in a few particular parts of southern Arizona during a few months.
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Date: 2024-06-09 07:29 am (UTC)I suppose someone from the Alps wouldn't think so--these are old and eroded mountains, with fewer sharp peaks. But they're the sort of mountains I'm used to, so to me they do!
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