The Scandes or the Scandinavian Mountains

The Scandes is the area we have been in thouroughout our entire holiday even if the landscape has been completely different from each other. The western part of the Scandes forms the famous fiords of Norway when the Scandes drop into the North Sea while the central and eastern parts have many great winter destinations for skiing, or hiking during the summer period.

We ended our vacation in Fulufjället, the southernmost part of the Scandes in Sweden. You have a couple of attractions in Fulufjället National Park and one of them is the highest waterfall in Sweden, Njupeskär, as well as the Siberian Jay that is the symbol for this National Park and Old Tjikko, one of the world’s oldest trees. Our aim with the visit was to discover the National Park as neither of us had been there before.

We did a trip up onto the high plateau that is Fulufjället. Again we were struck by how much snow and water there was and how little life we could find. We only saw four or five different species of bird in an area that should have an abundance with life this time of year. Everything is on a halt this year due to the cold weather.

The spring is more or less a month delayed in these parts of Sweden and other news have reached me saying that the breeding season will be a disaster for several bird species due to lack of food i.e. insects, spiders, etc.

The stay at Fulufjället was nice even if the bad weather followed us from Norway. The day on the high plateau was windy, but at least no rain. Sadly the path to the waterfall was closed due to damages to the foot-bridge leading up to the fall. We could still watch the fall and hear the noise.

Siberian Jay backlight Scandes — Siberian Jay backlight 150605

We thought the Siberian Jay would elude us, but on the last trip up to the area we found them. They are a very inquisitive and fearless species. I have never before been approached by birds like this and one even ended up eating an apple directly from Marias hand.

It was a nice ending to our two weeks in the Scandes before or trip back home to reality began with an overnight stay at a B&B just by Fryken, a lake in Värmland.

I hope you will enjoy this last gallery from my vacation here in Scandinavia.