marsh fritillary

Another species on my wish list for this spring was marsh fritillary.

Every time I seem to visit this site it clouds over and the insects stop flying. I leave and the sun appears. When I arrived, the sun had disappeared, so I sat and waited. Still no action, so it was time for early lunch, or was it second breakfast?

After an hour the sun appeared and within a minute the first fritillary made a short low flight. after a few minutes something at least 12 were on the wing, some were quite obliging for the camera.


water avens








marsh fritillary

Couldn't find any dingy skippers or singing nightingales, but the fritillaries alone were well worth the effort.

Apparently a unofficial release several years ago, the colony appears to be established. As long as they came from the closest suitable subpopulation, I have no problem with this at all. Local distinctiveness should be followed if possible in all such introductions, I believe.

Green Winged Orchids

Finally managed a trip for the Green-winged Orchids. They are quite an early flowering orchid, and in the past I've been too late. This year they were high on my hit-list.

The field held over a hundred spikes and was truly impressive. They are known for their colour variation and this field full was no exception, varying from a deep purple, to light pink to pure white. They also varied enormously in size.


Unlike some other orchids (such as bee) they stuck out like a sore thumb and were easy to find. The field was out in the middle of nowhere, amongst a sea of rape seed. A tiny island of biodiversity. Wonderous, precious, but sad.

Hornborgasjon spring 2008

While on a business trip to Gothenburg, I managed a return to Hornborgasjon making this something of an annual pilgrimage for me.

The trip was a little later than last year, but the timing seemed spot on, with birds, flowers, dragonflies and butterflies all vying for attention.

I spent all of 8 hours out in the field there, but it felt like I really needed another day to do it justice. I only covered about a third of the area. The size of the place is awesome. On a sunny Sunday, I only past a handful of other birders.....yet another plus for the mighty Hornborga.

the quite thin strip of reed held the singing great reed warblers

the lake is mostly surrounded by swamp and wet grassland

home of the vidye-vuy-vidya

I have not managed to id this plant yet - found at the edge of marshes all round the lake. Looks a bit bittercress-like

Birds of note were several singing great reed warblers, common rosefinch, calling wryneck, a small group of black tern and 100's of arctic tern, along with the regulars such as wt eagle, several osprey, 10's of rn and bn grebe, whooper swan, nesting cranes, 60+ wood sandpiper, spotted redshank, temminck's stint and flocks of raven. Surrounding woodland held pied flycatcher, and garden warbler.

No snaps of anything exotic, but the yellow wags were obliging again.

in almost everything, the swede's seem to have it sussed and do it much better than us. But they do have a goose problem that they have not yet solved - just like us.

There was a mass emergence of dragon and damselflies while I was there. They appeared to be mostly variable, azure and red-eyed damsefly, along with 4-spotted chaser, but several large white-faced darters with their bronzed wings looked stunning.

red-eyed damselflies (immatures)

large white-faced darter

Butterflies included brimstone, comma, green hairsteak and a fast flying camberwell beauty.

brimstone male

The east side of the lake has limestone hillsides where the pasque flowers were almost finished this year. Not really sure if the pansy species here is mountain pansy or not amonst masses of stitchwort.

limestone hills on the eastern shore

mountain(?) pansy

pasque flower

Holly Blue

A section of old hedge in the garden and those in neighbouring gardens seem to hold a small colony of holly blues.

male

This male has been on the wing quite frequently this past few weeks, chasing interplopers. I really must make an effort to find eggs and caterpillars this year. Have checked the Ivy in the past, but there is also holly, dogwood and spindle as potential food plants.

Smooth Newt

My pond is crammed with smooth newts this year. Hard so say how many due to the amount of pond weed for them to hide in, but having counted 20 separate newts, over 50 is not unreasonable.

After some poor results photographing through the surface, I fished a few out and took some snaps in an old fish tank. Results are quite OK. Must repeat with more realistic foreground, background and making sure threads of algae don't go in the tank.

male smooth newt though the pond surface amongst the water soldiers

male in the tank




male in display pose


Only under close viewing did I notice that the female has strange extensions to her yaws at the sides - don't have a clue what the function of these are.


female smooth newt