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
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