Fauna

Insects

This is the countryside, so local fauna is very present. This is how it should be, although sometimes the the Mosquitoes and a local variant of “Horse fly” (in Norwegian “Klegg” or “Hestebrems” – meaning Horses Brake) can be a bit too “friendly”. The horse fly is a true “stealth bomber”, it does not make a sound. The last years we have noticed an increase in the number of Ticks. This is probably because the number of Deer have increased wildly. Ticks will normally not be present on lawns or around the house, but where the grass is high or there are bushes, ticks will be there. Bumble Bee and Wasps are almost not present anymore, if you see one or two or even more, it really should be celebrated. We let some of the grass and wild flowers grow freely in some areas to try to help the bumble bee “population”. Normal House Fly and Spit Fly buzz about everywhere, they are very clever in finding windows to try to get through with absolutely no success. Best way to deal with them is to catch them with a cup and a paper and let them out, they have a role to play too.

Toads/frogs, Bats, Birds, Salamander, “Snok”, “Hoggorm”.

Toads are plentyful. Some periods of the year they jump about everywhere. We try not to run over them on the road up to the houses, they do no harm and just live here. They all come from the pond over the small hill behind Sofie´s BnB. All children growing up here have had their period of catching tadpoles in the pond and keep them in a bowl of water collected from the pond, to see the tadpoles gradually turn into toads. Toads here are of course not dangerous. There will be toads in the garden surrounding Sofie´s BnB. Just let them be, have a look, they are funny little fellows.

Bats come out every night. Not soo many now as before, but they are here. You can hear their sonar-sound when you are part of the picture they see, quite fascinating. They are of course not dangerous. It can be great fun to put a white blanket on the lawn at night. Then insects will gather over the blanket, and, if you are lucky, the bats will fly just over the white blanket to catch the insects. This way you can see the bats clearly and snap a photo or two.

Birds are plentyful. Too many to mention them all. But the family of Magpies that live in the tall tree close to the small, old house you pass on the way up to Sofie´BnB, are special “inhabitants”. They have a huge nest up there in the top of the tree. They have lived there for tens of years. This year (2023) they managed to breed five little magpies. It was a sight to see those five little ones learning to fly, from the big tree to the others near the house and back again. The first day we were afraid they would all fall down. Molli the dog was hoping they would. But the next day they were all professional pilots. Now they fly around here and shout at each other and Molli the Dog, while Mother Magpie train them in all the annoying tricks they can play on us humans. Among the tricks are tearing to shreds carpets and other material we sometimes hang outside, sabotage flowers and decorations. On the teracce at Sofie´s BnB you can see a whole part of the railing has been changed recently. Mother Magpie simply tore the old railing to shreds, she made a rather big hole in it.

Eagles and Ravens sometimes glide by, high up in the sky.

Last year (2022) a large, black bird was sitting on our teracce. It was a young raven that had crashed on his first flight. We managed to catch him very gently, gave him som of Molli the Dogs food (he loved it, Molli did not ), and brought him to a couple that knows how to rescue birds. They brought him to a vet, and after three weeks in recovery at the bird rescue facility, the young raven was named “Rolf” by our children, and set free at the end of the road up there at Sofie´s BnB. He flew happily to the first tree, and flew around our houses for many weeks. When he saw us he would dive down and expect to get some of Molli´s food. And he did. He would eat from a bowl we placed on the lawn, and if we put the bowl on the table on our terrasse, we could sit around the table and watch him eat. Probably we could have tamed Rolf Ravn (Ravn is Norwegian for Raven) completely, but we wanted him to be free. Ravens are the most intelligent creature after humans, they even outsmart chimps, our closest relative. One day we saw Rolf in a tree together with another Raven. The two of them flew longer and longer trips together, and then for long periods we did not see them. But now and again we see a raven or two in the trees behind the other two houses you can see from Sofie´s BnB, we like to think it is Rolf and friend who is visiting.

Ravens have a special place in Norwegian mythology. The chief viking god, Odin, had two ravens sitting on his shoulders. Those two, “Hugin” and “Munin”, would fly all over the world and report back to Odin what was going on, what he needed to attend to.

Crows and Seaguls come by too. You can hear when the crows come, because the magpies get furious. A special kind of crows can be seen too, forest-crow we think the are called. They are darker, mostly black and very slender. They can be mistaken for ravens, but they are smaller, but bigger than normal crows, and the raven is a much better “pilot” that hardly moves it´s wings unless it is doing some spontanious acrobatics.

Salamander can be found close to the pond. But they are rare and best let in peace.

“Snok” is Norwegian for Grass Snake. They are totally harmless and a bit rare. Usually they have a yellow spot on the sides of their head, or almost white spot.

“Hoggorm” is Norwegian for Viper.

The Norwegian Viper – “Hoggorm” – is not so very dangerous. They have poison, but normally not dangerous to humans unless allergy is involved. And it costs them a lot to make the poison, so the adult vipers have learned to do “dry bites” to save the poison. We have never heard of any humans or dogs that have been bitten here, ever. They are very rare, but through the years we have seen one or two up by the pond over the hill behind Sofie´s BnB. They are shy and not very poisenous, but still you have to see a doctor if someone is bitten. Dogs must be brought to a vet.