With Covid a long way from being over, I’m wishing I was a bird! We probably won’t be visiting family in the UK this winter and this morning there were some 50 fieldfares (gråtrost) and a few redwings and blackbirds feeding on rowan berries in the garden and above I could witness thousands of thrushes passing the house towards west. On some autumn days thrushes will stream past all day in the same direction, maybe following the fjord. The weather chart shows perfect flying conditions with light north easterly winds between Norway and the UK, so I’m thinking these are bound where I can’t go…
You appreciate the sunny spring days much more when you have a couple of days of blizzards in between….our resident robin, blackbird and chaffinch were back singing today! First the day train to Bodø passing.
Nice to wake up to a blackbird (svarttrost)in full song this morning. The first week in April is pretty much always when they start singing here!
A great tit (kjøttmeis) can also be heard. There are at least 3 territories in the garden and surrounding gardens this year. Also this week, curlews (storspove) have started singing in the bay and highlight of the week was a goldfinch (stillits) singing in the garden. It moved around and sang in the 3 different places…sadly, it didn’t return yesterday. It seems that goldfinches have started colonising this area as a breeding bird with single breeding records the last 3 years.
1. Blackbird (svarttrost) and great spotted woodpecker (flaggspett)
2. Bullfinches (male and female; dompap) on plum buds (not too happy with this), there were 8 birds altogether….hopefully they won’t do too much damage… :(
I always dreamed of working in a botanical garden and somehow my wish has come true only 7 months after retiring from job as an ocean wave climatologist!
Even better, I can come and go as I wish (more or less)…I now have an office where I will be able to document and tend (in summer) my onion garden, as visiting researcher :)
WOW!
…and the staff are lovely people too :)
090118: Wren foraging and joined by a second bird120118: It’s quite a few years I’ve seen two-barred crossbill (båndkorsnebb), but then I’ve never deliberately sought them out at Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim which, because of its collection of conifers, is one of the best places to see this species, the less common of the 3 crossbills here…only one female with a single common or parrot crossbill…
090118: Wrens (gjerdesmett):
120118: What are these redpolls (gråsisik) feeding on?:
120118: Magpie (skjære):
120118: Dark red squirrel (ekorn):
090118: Fieldfare:
090118: Blackbird under Ribes alpinum
Ringve Botanical Garden’s Administration building and glasshouse
The old Ringve Farm today houses the Ringve Music Museum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringve_Museum)
My office window is south facing, far right in the picture
Reporting for work
The office!
The welcoming committee arriving :)
A stroll around the garden to check my Allium garden!
Many of the plant labels had been moved. This is the culprit :)
Alliums
Ringvedammen with Typha angustifolia in the foreground
Typha angustifolia
Juglans mandschurica
Walnuts on the ground!
Waxwings like it at Ringve
Distant mountains and tree full of waxwings!
111217:Beech (bøk) Allee leading up to Ringve, in the background
111217:Beech (bøk) Allee leading up to Ringve, in the background
111217:Masses of beech mast under the trees probably the reason there are so many bramblings (bjørkefink) around this autumn
111217: Rognli, neighbouring property to the botanical garden in the swiss style (http://www.strindahistorielag.no/wiki/index.php?title=Rognli)
111217:Ladesletta playing fields from Ringve
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111217: Winter protection in the garden
111217: Sorbus cashmiriana
111217: Sorbus cashmiriana
111217: Crataegus macracantha
111217: Crataegus macracantha
111217: The pilgrim’s path to Nidaros cathedral passes through the garden
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111217: Redpolls (gråsisik) on birch
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111217: Rosa spp.
111217: Beech hedge around the Renaissance garden
111217: Kale in the Renaissance garden
111217: Topset (Egyptian) onions in the Renaissance garden
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061217: Malus toringoides
061217: …and I’ve never seen fieldfares (gråtrost) eating juniper berries before (Juniperus officinalis)
061217: An old horseradish lies frozen here!
061217: Woodpigeons (ringdue) have taken a fancy to species apple Malus toringoides from China
061217: Gamlehagen
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061217: Gamlehagen, a collection of old ornamental plants from Trøndelag (our county)
061217: A neighbour…
061217: Sciadopitys verticillata, koyamaki or Japanese umbrella-pine (Skjermgran). Like asparagus and butcher’s broom (Ruscus), what look like leaves are actually cladodes or modified stems
061217: Typha (cattails / dunkjevle)
061217: Salix spp.
061217: Typha (cattails / dunkjevle)
061217: Typha (cattails / dunkjevle)
061217: Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock / Canadahemlokk From pfaf.org: Inner bark – raw or cooked; Usually harvested in the spring; it can be dried, ground into a powder and then used as a thickening in soups etc or mixed with cereals when making bread. The leaves and twigs yield ‘spruce oil’, used commercially to flavour chewing gum, soft drinks, ice cream etc. A herbal tea is made from the young shoot tips. These tips are also an ingredient of ‘spruce beer’
061217: Tsuga canadensis
061217:The Allium garden today :)
Colleague Steinar’s Xmas table decoration from the garden and greenhouse!
At the department Xmas get-together leader of the garden Vibekke gave a nice presentation of the year
Grand old ornithologist Otto Frengen is collaborating with the garden making it a good place to be for birds
…and there’s a bird feeding station in the woods next to my Allium garden
That fellow looks familiar :)
Reorganising of the systematic garden due to new knowledge based on genetics…
Walnut harvest!
For Norwegians, you might like to listen in to radio program Naturens verden who are talking about Xmas plants last and next Sunday…
191217: Today’s office views, first around 13:40
191217: …and 14:45
191217: 14:45
201217: Proof that the sun is visible from my new office even at the solstice…
201217: Proof that the sun is visible from my new office even at the solstice…
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030118: The first rays of the sun on the Renaissance Garden!
030118: The onion garden…
030118: Distant mountains in the Fosen Alps
030118: Distant mountains in the Fosen Alps
030118: The onion garden
030118: Betula pendula, silver birch (hengebjørk)
030118: Ringvedammen (Ringve Pond)
030118: Woodpigeons (ringdue)
030118: Typha angustifolia
030118: Typha angustifolia
030118: The island Tautra
030118: Rose hips, important winter food for greenfinches!
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090118: Pinus jeffreyi
090118: Lots of twigs on the ground after the weekend storm under this larch
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090118: Work ongoing after the fire
090118: Picea omorika
090118: Tree tops in sunlight; Picea omorika
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090118: Plenty of food left for some birds
090118: Sunlight on an abundance of rosehips next to the Renaissance garden
