First Dragons

A nice sunny day at last, so a short trip to a local wetland to find some of the first dragonflies of the year seemed a good idea.

Found a female 4-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) emerging about half a meter from the water.


4-spotted chaser emerging from laval skin


opening the wings


pumping and drying wings

head shot

female ready for lift off


The main reason for the trip was to find the Hairy Hawker (Brachytron pratense). The males were hawking low down as advertised, only rarely settling for any length of time.

Noticably shorter and stubbier than more familiar hawkers and it helps they are out earlier than most other dragons. Sides green, interupted by two black lines.

Hairy Dragonfly male

Hornborgasjon

With a sunday free and rain forecast on the Swedish west coast, I headed up to Hornborgasjon.

I have given up trying to pronounce the name of this place to the locals and instead call it "Lake Hornborga", or "the place where the Tranor gather and dance in spring". With a maximum of 13,900 crances counted, it has been a very good year for them. Only in their 100's at this time of the year however.

At first sight it looks a bit like a UK wetland with the usual feral greylag and canada goose problem, but then you notice the red-necked grebes everywhere, the ospreys, displaying waders in breeding plumage, arctic terns and the odd white-tailed eagle! then there is just the shear scale of the place - 4,000hectares even on a sunday it felt like I had the place to myself.

As it happened, wader numbers were quite low due, I think, to higher water levels then usual - a few gangs of ruff, wood sandpipers and spotted redshank, but WT Eagles put in several impressive performances, its presence pointed out to me by the hysterical black-headed gull conony (amazing how such a large bird can be overlooked if not careful in such a large landscape). Several osprey were fishing and nesting and the grebes showed well.


view from the eastern side of the lake
Just another of those 4,000 hectare Swedish lakes...enough to keep a naturalist happy for a full day at least


lots of shallow "blue edge" and grazed wet meadows around the lake is thought important by the swedes and something which is often lacking in our wetlands.




pasque flower on the eastern side of the lake

On the eastern side of the lake are some limestone mounds containing some interesting flowers such as pansy and pasque flower. Also a huge colony of some kind of mining bee and the odd camberwell beauty shot by on a strong wind.




green hairstreak

Woodland surrounding the lake contained pied flycatchers, redstarts, green hairstreaks and the odd camberwell beauty. Didn't hear the wrynecks this time.


thunbergi yellow wags were everywhere




red-necked were the most common of the grebes with 10's counted from most viewpoints. Quite a few Black-necked were also about, but couldn't find the Slavonian's.



the restored Hornborgasjon with raised water levels from the western side

Spillkraka no show

wood anemones are abundent all around gothenburg, sweden


Kattugla being mobbed

During a work-related trip to gothenburg, sweden, I managed to make a trip to one of my favourite local sites - an old beech woodland. The mighty spillkraka nests here, but at this time of the year, keeps unusually quiet and without knowing which of the multitude of large cavities they are nesting in, a sighting of the big black woodpecker is difficult. This site never disappoints, however and I was richly rewarded with several Hawfinch feeding from beechmast on the woodland floor while woodwarblers spun off their song from the canopy.

Sorry, no respectable photos of the Hawfinch possible with the FZ7, but after some crafty stalking, I did manage a shot of a Tawny Owl being mobbed. The woodland floor was well populated with voles and mice, but the Pygmy Owl call I heard was probably a Jay trying to fool me. Calling back did not produce the reaction from Pygmy Owl I have found in the past.

mating arvicolas

arvicola casanova...looking for love


water vole bliss

Lots of water vole activity at the local drain. With sex on the mind, close photography was easily possible. The male seemed to perform a circuit on the water, with the odd skermish before meeting up and mating with the female. This was repeated every couple of minutes.