June 2011
In my
previous blog post, I wrote about my paddling on Bothnian Sea last midsummer weekend. While paddling there, I spotted a nice looking, small rocky island and decided to have a short lunch break there. Later on learnt the island's name to be "
Hoppostenkloppi".
While enjoying lunch there, started to look at more carefully how deserted the island actually was. Basically at first sight it looked like it had one huge rock, a big tree and some grass on one side, and that's all. Second quick sight around brought some new grown things in view, thus decided to circle the whole tiny island after lunch.
After seeing some interesting looking plants decided to take photos to record some variants of them. After taking couple of photos spotted some birds there, too. Next big surprise was to find a bird's nest with fresh eggs in there and almost stepped on a snake!
After shooting photos about 10 minutes, became so amazed about how rich such an island was in plants as well as in wildlife. As being a total novice on these, I needed some help later on to recognize all stuff. Here's some of the plants and animals spotted there. Nature is wonderful, even on a remote island.
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| Hoppostenkloppi island, a rock and a tree, that's not all folks ... |
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| Hoppostenkloppi island from north side |
Wildlife
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| A nest of Common Eider |
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| Northern Wheatear |
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| Grass snake |
Moss
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| Lichen |
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| Lichen |
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| Bryophyte |
Trees
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| Alder |
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| Sorbus |
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| Birch |
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| Alder |
Bushes
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| Common Sea-Buckthorn |
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| Fern |
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| Juniperus |
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| Alpine Currant |
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| Common Sea-Buckthorn |
Flowers
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| Orpine |
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| Goldmoss Stonecrop |
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| Cow Vetch |
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| Valerian |
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| Mayweed |
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| Goldmoss Stonecrop |
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| Common Silverweed |
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| Woodland Strawberry |
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| 'Something's growing in the water' |
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| Norwegian Anjelica |
Grass
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| Sea Grass |
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| Grass |
What a variety of flora on such an small island! I love the name Hoppostenkloppi, wonder what's the history of it. Something to do with nearby Hopponen I guess.
ReplyDeleteHopponen is a mystery to me but the suffix "-kloppi" is a local spoken dialect, similar to Turku dialect, and comes originally from Swedish language word -klobb or -klubb (-klobben or -klubben in plural). Once added as a suffix to other word they mean a rocky island, relatively high and steep, also plain (not much flora). Fits quite well to what it was!
ReplyDeleteThe -klob named islands are quite a lot more in south from here (south from the city of Turku).
Interesting information about nature in this municipal (in Finnish): http://www.ymparisto.fi/default.asp?contentid=15172&