Today I went for a walk at Stormossen swamp which is near Väransby camping area by the sea. This was the first time I visited the area, and it took a bit of trial and error to find the right road leading towards Väransby. I left my car by the roadside and walked to the swamp, which is at 22 meters above sea level, and the seaside is only 500 meters away.
My plan was to walk around the swamp, which I though would be an easy thing to do. Well, the name Stormossen is quite right - "Big Swamp" in Swedish - and after an hour of walking I realized I had gone less than a third of the way. I took a couple of shortcuts across the swamp, which helped with the distance, but walking on the wet swamp was tiring.
In the end I walked for 2 1/2 hours, less than I was planning for, but that was enough for today.
There were a lot of little paths at Stormossen, and at first I thought that the place is really popular with people. But I met nobody while walking. And when I looked more carefully at the paths I noticed that most of the tracks had been made by moose and deer, not people.
North of the swamp there are rocky hills, and some logging had been done at the forest there recently. The Stormossen swamp is at the west end of the "green belt" going around Helsinki, but nowadays the green belt is no longer whole, it has been cut to pieces. Some years ago capercaillie was said to be found at Stormossen, but no longer. But despite this I enjoyed my walk.
I think I saw a rather interesting bird at the swamp, but I'm not quite sure of my observation, and given that the species in question is rather rare, it is perhaps better not to speculate. I didn't go closer to investigate because I didn't want to risk disturbing the bird.
The photographs were taken at Stormossen swamp this morning.
(Posting title is from the poem The Big Bad by David Orr.)
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