Spawning fish at Vaulen (could it be Salmon)

Salmon (pronounced samon or laks) is a big thing for those not living in Norway. Locally it's just another part of the wildlife especially for those not involved in the salmon farming industry, government players marketing the salmon to the world or a fishing kaki.

I prefer mackerel myself and have not ventured to fish salmon out of it's natural habitat, so far I have not even been tempted. It's a big regal fish that I think should be left to do it's thing without hindrance.

The other day while out birdwatching and filming shrimps at the fjord near the house I heard some loud splashing in the shallows. Turned around and saw what looked like tails. Is it salmon? It's the right season for a salmon run ... but in the fjord? They normally run up pristine rivers for spawning and those are plentiful slightly further south and north of here.

Maybe I should bring my rods over and try a few casts ... maybe not.

Grey Heron at Vaulen

Grey Heron ... when I first saw them after moving here I said, "Are you here too?".  Back in Miri you see them occasionally at Kua;a Baram Wetlands but not in great numbers.  I saw my first big colony at Kuala Selangor Nature Park.

It's also very common here. Always a nice thing to see it hunt by the shore, ever so patient and deliberate in it's stalking style. I think I have a video recording of it stalking prey in Egersund, that was a big yawn inducer if you are not a birder.

Lately I've been made aware of it's more sinister side which I never expected. There've been several well recorded cases of Grey Heron preying on ducklings and baby waders. Some have been posted on Youtube.

Initially it seemed out of character for a bird of such grace and calculated stalking style but then you realise that this is nature, if you can swallow it, it's food.

Early morning calls

Birdcalls at dawn around 4am this morning

Night Vigil in Hundvag

The night is not as quiet as this video suggests, seagulls were up, flying and making a lot of noise.

Late Spring almost Summer at the Arboret

I wish I could convey the excited happy sounds from the woods on these pages together with each of the photographs posted here. I picked a picnic table and just sat quietly to listen to sounds of the forest early Spring morning. It's a cacophony of tumultous chirping, loud singing from top of the tall pines, beating of the wings and swoosh of busy little dashing flights all around me however all of them were happy sounds. Spring is here, summer will soon be upon us and everybody is busy making nests gathering all sorts of nesting material in anticipation of another year of life. It feels great to be in the midst of it as a witness present, absorbing all of it.

 

 

First recording with the Zoom 4HN .. need to learn to sit still.

Flying high on Maudal 530m

This time I took the steeper more or less trail (more like sheep footpath) up to the plateau. It's steeper than the other approach but it's an easy climb with beautiful view looking back into the valley where the Candle Factory and Farm is located. Every now and again I looked back and took in the vista.

It took probably a total of 30-45mins to reach the plateau at 530m. From here you can see clearly Maudal and Byrkjedal valley below. Most of the higher peaks are around 700m + beyond the plateau. A 10 hour trail makes a loop  back to the parking lot (at 400m) peaking at 850m +. It's mostly rocky trails at this height with trees only thriving aound 500m and below.

The sky roundabouts 1500hrs with temperatures peaking  at14deg C with a constant gentle breeze.

This site could be a nice spot for an overnight Milkyway session come August. I shot Milkyway here before several summers ago but that was just around the parking lot below. An overniter might be worth it except for the steep climb (considering 2 tripods, star tracker, sleeping bag and camera gear).

Dry Snorkelling at Vaulen

After an almost near miss with a leaky o-ring, I thought I'd give the waters at Vaulen a shot after switching camera and casing. This time instead of using the constantly bobbing float (not suitable with waves) I decided to attached the Gopro Session 4 to the 2,5m telescoping selfie stick. It's very light and easy to maneuver. Camera movements and angles are also much more easily controlled compared to the bobbing float. The float is ideal for random camera action in deadcalm waters.

First location, open fjord ad more prone to wave motion due to boat traffic.

Second location, slighty sheltered location and more calm.

Dancing kelp in shimmering light

The waves picked up a bit by the time I decided to record. None the less I think the shimmering light on the sand and swaying kelp were beautiful. The bobbing float and wave action created a random motion which favor, and the sunshine on the seabottom was sublime and relaxing. I had to slow down the speed of the capture to 20% of actual 60fps original recording.

Timelapse of a day in May

Timelapse from the wooden deck facing south.

Catching clouds on Iflight8C

It's been almost two months since I last flew, there weren't any interesting clouds to capture honestly so the motivation to fly wasn't really that great. However today out of nowhere some really nice puffy looking clouds appeared from the west. There was virtually no wind movement and the clouds seemed to be just floating by on their own accord like a slow moving caravan of mute elephants moving across the sky.

IFlight8C chasing a caravan of mute elephants across the sky

May Milkyway from Hundvag

The first place we headed out to after moving to Hundvag was Lundenesset, a small park with sheep pasture facing the fjords looking out towards Tau/Jorpeland to the East and Amoy to the North. Over several years while living in Hundvag this spot has been a favorite of mine for taking pictures of birds, seascapes and the nightsky. It's fairly quiet on most days except on sunny summer weekends. Flying drones here is also rather safe without having to contend with other people especially early Saturday or weekday mornings and before sunset.

I headed over to Lundenesset for some early morning Spring Milkyway on one clear sky night this week. Though now it is fairly well lit (jogging path all around) I didn't see anybody else except for your's truly. Perhaps the time being rather late and the wind rather crummy and cold explained the situation a little bit.

The night chosen wasn't exactly ideal other than the fact that it was a fairly clear sky night. The temperatures went to as low as 4 deg C and to make it worst the wind was practically howling the whole time I was there!

With difficulty I managed to shoot with the light duty Panasonic LX100 as well as the night time tool Sony A7S paired with a recently purchased (used) Voightlander 35/1,2 for a few shots. The 6xcarbon Gitzo truly couldn't manage to tame the winds, I had to press down the tripod legs with both hands to keep it steady for each shot. Even then only a few shots survived the shakes.

Some of these shots are shown here. 

Dalsnuten, Lost in the Fog

The intention was good. I left the house around 4am and reached the parking lot by 4.30am and I was only the second parked there. The other car must have belonged to the fellas taking up on of the cabins across the road. The intention today was to hiked in early and get a timelapse view over the city as the fog rises.

It's 4:45 am by the time I reached the foot of the trail, already I wasn't able to see 20 feet in front of me, not just because of the fog but also it's still dark, sunrise isn't happening for another 2hours. And I did not bring a torch. Making do with light from the handphone is snaked my way around what seemed to be a trail heading out to some silhouette of trees in the distance.

The trail lost an hour later I scrambled up the hill through some long grass and wet patches and soon rediscovered the main trail. By this time Dalsnuten is still nowhere to be seen. By 8am it's still surrounded by thick fog. The whole area was enveloped in gray mist. It's not dark, yet it's not yet light. It's a gray zone in the middle, it shifted with the breeze but never leaving the area. Trees and mounts of rock appears and disappears steeped in quietness. Occasionally the birds chirped.

By 11:00 am I started to hear voices of other hikers. There were still not visuals further than 50 feet. Then I saw a lone hiker on a trail below me, hunkered down briskly moving forward step after step intent on conquering the trail ahead.

By 12:00 Dalsnuten still hasn't come into view. Before more hikers started to appear I decided to leave the area. I descended Eiknuten following the main trail, still in the fog.

I wasn't sure what time the fog finally lifted, when I finally reached home, Dalsnuten was still in the thick embrace of the gray fog. It persisted throughout the entire day.