Today we have photos of Finland from ecologist Susan Harrison of UC Davis. Susan’s captions and IDs are indented and you can enlarge them by clicking on them.
Midsummer in the Åland Islands, Finland
On the tiny Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea, humans observe Midsummer Eve in traditional Swedish style. Towering, vine-decorated maypoles are raised in an hourlong process of pole-pushing and rope-pulling, followed by folk music and dancing.
Midsummer Eve at around 9 pm, Kastelholm, Åland:
Birds, meanwhile, have even more urgent preoccupations than celebrating the summer solstice. Parents are feeding screaming chicks, who jostle for the front of the chow line.
Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) pulling up seaweed for their cygnets:
Great Crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus) providing transportation and food delivery:
Common Terns (Sterna hirundo), one pair feeding their sole chick fish and insects, while absent adults at the neighboring nest are awaited by two noisy chicks:
Jackdaws (Coloelus modedula), adult and ravenous juvenile:
Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis) defending their young against a passing human:
Black Woodpecker (Dendrocopus major), foraging to feed chicks that I didn’t manage to capture in this picture:
These species all have identical or near-identical sexes who share in raising the young, in contrast to the many bird species in which males are flashier and contribute less at the nest than females.
Oooh, I didn’t know about black woodpeckers. Beautiful!
Åland is a lovely place.
Hemperstein – I know 1300-ish kanji in Japanese and can read to an acceptable level Russian, Arabic and badly, Hebrew. I’ve wasted a lot of my life on my language learning hobbies.
But bugger me if I can work out how to put those cool little circles on the “A”s.
I bet if I actually went to Aland – which I understand is indeed lovely – they’d show me.
best,
D.A.
NYC
Love the baby birds all waiting for parents to provide. To me, it looks like most of them are old enough to go out and find something on their own.
The swan pictures are especially lovely, but those birds are at times scary.
I too did not know about black woodpeckers!
The summer solstice celebration in the first photo looks lovely–a very festive way to celebrate the day!
And thanks for the bird photos; I knew about black woodpeckers, but had never see such a detailed photo of one.
Beautiful birds! And I’ve always wondered what it must be like on the summer solstice in the Arctic at midnight. Cool picture!
Wonderful! That Black Woodpecker is the best! I am very fond of all kinds of woodpeckers.
Did that tern chick manage to eat the whole fish? They are nearly the same size!
It sounds like a fine adventure.
Thanks for the lovely pictures.
I don’t know why swan chicks are called ‘ugly’ compared to ducklings. They’re adorable balls of fluff.
I can’t help but add that every time I see traditional Swedish culture being enacted I just can’t help but think of the movie Midsommer. Glad you survived!
Photo of Midsummer festival on Åland pure delight! It says 9pm and it will stay light a lot later than that. We don’t have daylight savings time here in Japan and the sun has set by 7 o’clock, a total drag. Scandinavian/Nordic summers are the best.
Clearly we should all celebrate the solstice more! Great photos, love the swans.
These are wonderful! Thank you.
Midsummer Eve is a holiday I could celebrate. Looks better than Festivas.
I love to see the babies and the adults.
Great photos. Thanks.