Stockholm

You all probably thought that since we're doing this trip in winter, we wouldn't bore you with a bunch of bird pics.

WRONG!

Even though it snowed all day today, we were out and about visiting with friends.  Tommy and Lars have a lovely home on Smidö, on the shores of Lake Mälaren, and we spent the afternoon there.  Sheila, her friend Ami, and Lars L. all played nyckelharpa, with Tommy on cittra.  Meanwhile, Lars O. sat with camera aimed at their bird feeders.  Taking clean shots through a damp window on a snowy day doesn't lead to the clearest end result, but the birds are identifiable, at least.

Here we have both male and female Större Hackspet (Greater Spotted Woodpecker)....actually, these were taken from our hotel window. It's common that male woodpeckers have red on their heads, while females do not, as with these two:

Next a Talgoxe (Great Tit), which is much like a Chickadee in behavior.  His back and wings are more blue and his tummy more yellow than shows here:

A Grönfink (European Greenfinch) couple:

Sweden's version of the Little Brown Bird found everywhere, Gråfink (Gray Finch or Plain-colored Seedeater):

How many do you see here?

A Domherre (Eurasian Bullfinch), whose preferred position was with his back to us:

And the most colorful bird of the day, the Steglits (European Goldfinch), which we had earlier been told doesn't appear in this yard very often. Today, there were a lot of them:

Sorry they're so blurry! But bird-watching from indoors was definitely a treat on this chilly day, as was the delicious fish soup prepared by Lars L, plus a chocolate torte with whipped cream and raspberries, in honor of Ami's birthday (the given reason for this get-together).

Tomorrow is another "rest day" here in Stockholm, so likely not another post for a couple of days.  On Tuesday we get on yet another plane to fly up past the Arctic Circle, to Luleå, for the start of our next ski adventure (we hope...).