"One Year – One Island" – Nr 5 – Angelika Ann Kammerer

Week 5 – Möckelmossen, a birds paradise

When I first visited Öland, I immediately liked the vastness, the flat land and, above all, the endless sky. I grew up near Munich and so trips to the Alps were part of my childhood. But I never really felt at home in the valleys, I wasn’t enthusiastic about mountain hiking (only alpine skiing) and found the landscape oppressive and terrifying. When I was 12, I went to the North Sea for the first time and immediately felt at home in this flat, barren landscape with the endless expanse of the sky and even the strong winds couldn’t change that. Öland is located in the milder Baltic Sea, but is also characterized by a certain roughness.

Öland grabbed me immediately and half of that love still goes to the sky above this strange island. Due to a geological peculiarity (compared to the Swedish mainland), a scrubby, dry vegetation of lichens, heather, grasses and juniper bushes covers many parts of Öland. Here there is only a thin layer of humus over the hard limestone subsoil created by the Ice Age. This type of landscape is called an Alvar. The flora and fauna have adapted to the barren conditions, so that plants and animals that are rarely found elsewhere are native here.

Öland is home to the largest Alvar in the world and stretches across almost the entire width of the South Island and a length of 40 kilometers (shown light brown on the map). On my painting trip around Öland I will certainly choose the Alvar landscape as a motif more often. This first time I was drawn to the largest Alvar lake that the island has to offer: Möckelmossen. The lake is a MUST-SEE for every bird enthusiast or ornithologist. The combination of dry Alvar vegetation and flooded limestone slabs is a special sight.

I stopped my car at the parking place, which was almost empty that day. A camper van was parked there and the owners just returned from their hike when I got out of the car. Thorbjörn and Lena are from Falkenberg, a town on the west coast of Sweden which is known for its concentration of artists. I love conversations that arise from such chance encounters – and the two were so warm and interested – I know that they are both reading this report today. 🙂

I took the bike to a viewing platform even though it wasn’t far, but it’s easier not to have to carry the painting equipment. On the railing of the platform there are signs illustrated by a gifted watercolor painter from our island, Peter Nilsson. They show the different species of birds that can be spotted here. Peter Nilsson has illustrated many bird books and I admire him for his detailed and light watercolors, even if I don’t share his great enthusiasm for birds. While I was sketching my motif in pencil, a large flock of birds suddenly flew up, screeching in panic – unfortunately I couldn’t tell what kind of species it was – and I discovered that the cause was a sea eagle (I can easily recognize them from a great distance), which was apparently hunting. It was a real spectacle, but the sea eagle didn’t seem to have any luck, at least it eventually let go and flew away. The flock circled excitedly one or two times and then dived back into the yellow reeds on the horizon. Otherwise I found it surprisingly quiet, considering that there must have been hundreds of birds in front of me. Only the geese formations, which regularly past over me, disturbed this calm.

At some point the wind picked up and blew in my back and when I turned around I saw that a dark rain cloud was on the horizon. About 20 minutes later it had reached me and I saved the almost finished painting by closing the pad and covering it. The rain shower didn’t last long and shortly afterwards a fantastic rainbow stretched over a sunny yellow reed landscape. If one were to paint such a motif, it would be considered kitsch or romantic fantasy. When I finished the watercolor at around 5 p.m., I packed up my things in a flash and just managed to get to the outhouse in the parking lot – I had drunk a whole thermos of tea while painting. Then I started the journey home: just under 1.5 hours driving time for 95 kilometers.

This time I am really happy with my painting. It is much looser than the stonewall last week – but of course the motif had been much darker ond more detailed than this one.