Thursday 27 December 2012

white and green Xmas

Just before Xmas we experienced a fierce snowstorm, windforce 18m/sec. Blankets of snow drifted over the fields and spiralled in the courtyard. Vestervang looked like Scott's final camp at the South Pole.
Early evening the wind settled down a bit and I went shopping, our old 4x4 Volkswagen Synchro easily took all the snow dunes on the road, which was great fun!  I first met the snowplough on my way back, and with enough food and firewood to last a week, I was really looking forward to lots of winter fun.
Xmas day we woke to high temperatures and rain, all the snow had melted during the night and everything was green and muddy again.
I saw the hen-harrier ( circus cyaneaus) couple again this morning. They have been here for a week now, so they probably decided there are enough mice in my field to stay a little longer. And for the next few days they won't have to compete with our new cat, - a cat that found us and never left, as he's off to the vet today to get neutered. No more mouse hunting for him this week.
Hen-harriers are winter guests, they nest in the north of Scandinavia and Rusland, only very rarely in Denmark. The male is nearly white with black tips on his wings, and the female brown with a distinguishable white spot above her tail. They love open landscapes and hunt flying low above the fields.
Who knows where they will go when spring arrives... and spring is definitely on its way: the daylight hours are on the increase again.




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