Another quite lovely day here. A bit chilly in the morning but the sun did its work and the temperature rose up to 10C (50F), very little wind as well so I could have the kitchen door open for quite some time.
The hunters gave up pretty early, not surprised since I’ve only seen two moose tracks since early July. So we’ve had a couple of really nice walks today. This nice weather unfortunately also made the few moose flies we still have pretty energetic, at least none of them landed on my neck like yesterday. Those moose flies are no more thankfully.
They are now investigating whether we should have the European bison, the Wisent, roaming our forests again. I think they died out a couple millennia ago, perhaps because humans hunted them to extinction or perhaps for another reason, we don’t know. I’m not sure what I would feel about that, it’s another huge animal I would risk hitting with my car while driving to and from work. Then again since moose now are quite rare here in southern Sweden it sort of would even it out. I guess that hunters would like it since they sooner or later most likely would be allowed to hunt them as well.
If they do allow it I think we also should allow the European pond turtle back and why not the Black rat, this warmer climate would fit them both well and I’m pretty sure the Black rat wouldn’t help spreading the plague again, we just need to make sure the rats they bring here doesn’t have those lice that carried the disease 🙂 🙂 🙂 We already have the Red-eared slider here ( even though it still is a bit too long winter for them to reproduce) so why not the one that actually lived here so long ago.
Tomorrow will also be really nice and we might get frost once again. I didn’t win the lottery so I’ll have to go to work again. It’s a long work week and to be honest it actually feels worse on Monday knowing we have to work on Friday as well than it feels working on that Friday 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
The Cottage by the crane lake. 
Hi Christer,
European bison are considered a keystone species much like American wolves and beavers. There was a documentary on PBS about the benefits to the ecology of an area that are due to the reintroduction of the bison. Their presence gives wolves something else to eat besides cattle and sheep. They change the habitat in many ways and that benefits insects, birds, and many plants. More importantly, If they put the bison in Sweden, you could then have lots of Facebook posts about people who stupidly petted the “fluffy cows”. 😀
Nobody wants the black rat. But Bubonic plague is endemic in every rodent west of the Mississippi River here. The best that can be done about it is to hope no country rodent interacts with a city rodent. Every year we have a few cases. Good thing antibiotics take care of it.
The weather has been decent this whole weekend. It did not rain at all except, maybe, where Kat lives and that only fractions of an inch. This is the first rain-free weekend in the last 8 weeks. The temps were in the high 50’s F and the sky was mostly sunny with no wind. Now it’s clouding up again.
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Hi Caryn!
Yes they are and forests would benefit a lot from having them here. “Our” Bisons live in the forest unlike Yours who live on the plains. I guess we’ll sooner or later have them here too since they are now realizing that the climate is pushing the moose further north instead and the hunters really would like to hunt bisons as a replacement. The odd thing is that we have both Red deer and Fallow deer here but since the hunters haven’t hunted them before they’re really reluctant to start hunting them. I know one old hunter who asked me if they actually were edible 🙂 🙂 🙂 And yes I would have lots of post about people petting the fluffy cows 🙂 🙂 🙂
I know we still had the black rat in the most southern parts of Sweden when I grew up but the brown rat made life so hard for them that they died out.
Sometimes it’s a good thing to live far north and enough distance to the continent so that once a disease is gone it’s usually gone for good. Thankfully no cases of the plague here since the middle ages I think 🙂
Really nice morning again here. We did have frost during the night but it was long gone befire I woke up.
Have a great day!
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Christer,
The day was dark and grey until late afternoon when the sun came out. It was in the low 60’s all day. We didn’t get the forecasted rain. It was a pretty nice weekend.
The bison have made quite the comeback here after near extintion. There are herds roaming the prairies again. Their number is estimated to be 350,000. Hunting is legal in some states where herds require culling to maintain a target population.
The other animal I’ll mention is the wild turkey. In the early 1900s, wild turkeys were nearly extinct, with only about 200,000 left. Conservation saved the bird, and now there are approximately 6.5 million wild turkeys. They released a few pairs years ago here on the cape, and now I see them all over including my front yard.
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Hi Kat!
A really nice morning again here, a bit windy now at noon but mostly sunny.
I’m pretty sure we sooner or later will have our Bisons in the forests again. Unlike Yours ours live in the forest and forests really benefits from having them around.
Over here we have the Cranes. They were on the brink of extinction back in the days but now they’re so many that they are talking about hunting them again because they do so much damages in the fields. Plus many cranes can’t find anywhere to nest any more since all good spaces are taken. Therefore we now have nesting couples in bigger towns nearby 🙂
Have a great day!
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