We returned to Tyresta national park and this time made it far enough in to walk across the part which was burnt in a large forest fire in 1999. As you can see, some of the old trees remain standing, but mostly it is small growth. Standing on higher bits of ground you had the very unusual experience of actually being able to see into the distance without being on a lake (not so easy when the whole country is wooded).
To continue our cultural assimilation as true swedes, our main aim was to pick berries and mushrooms. We were successful in finding blueberries and lingonberries (not hard - they are everywhere). We thought we had found a nice load of chantarelle mushrooms, but closer inspection of various websites showed they were in fact false chantarelles - not poisonous but not edible was the advice. So they went in the bin instead of into a pan.
 |
| "He's coming straight for us" |
Wildlife was spectacular - highlight was a white-tailed eagle soaring above. It was a huge bird with massive straight wings just effortlessly gliding around. Also watched a juvenile grey-throated diver try to dive - lots of dramatic splashing around and wing flapping occasionally followed by the bird managing to get underwater for a little while. In the mean time his parents were successfully diving down for a decent amount of time. However the real excitement came during another berry picking session. Off in the distance I noticed a capercaillie in full mating display - head tilted back and tail feathers spread. That's exciting we thought and quietly got out the binoculars to have a closer look. The capercaillie seemed to want to have a closer look at us too and wandered over. Living in the woods, he eats a lot of berries which stains his beak with red streaks. He continued to come closer and closer with his bloodstained beak until he was just within pecking distance. At this point we decided we did not want to find out what happened if you clout a capercaillie with a sketchbook in self defence and beat a hasty retreat.
We're pretty sure we weren't anywhere near his nest, but we'll never know. I reckon it was just a psycho bird which had got the taste of walkers blood. Our bird book says "retiring in habits"!
