Birding - 06/08/09

Klarningen - more water (we missed a lot of rain whilst on holiday). Ruderal growth has been good over the late summer and as the site floods up it will be rich in seeds and very good for duck. No aquatic macrophytes yet but plenty of aquatic invertebrates scooting about in the warm shallow water.

After a bit of a lie-in, I nipped out for a morning in the field to get my eye back in after the holidays! Klarningen looked great and produced some waders including Temminck's stint (2), greenshank (1), spotted redshank (2), wood sandpiper (4), common sandpiper (1), ruff (5), snipe (12) and lapwing (110). A wheatear (1) along the access track signalled autumn for real. Dragonflies were much in evidence in the warm weather with Anax imperator, Aeshna mixta, Aeshna grandis, Sympetrum striolatum, Ischnura elegans, Enallagma cyathigerum and Lestes sponsa. A big surprise was a superb female Onychogomphus forcipatus sunning itself on the bare substrate at the water's edge (my first in Sweden).

Sympetrum striolatum - present in good numbers and ovipositing at Klarningen

A big surprise at Klarningen was this female Onychogomphus forcipatus

Before lunch I nipped up to Frestensfälla to check out the dragonfly pools. The sun unfortunately went into cloud but I managed to get Aeshna cyanea, Aeshna grandis, Sympetrum danae, Coenagrion hastulatum and Lestes sponsa. Butterflies were good too and included silver-washed and high brown fritillary.

Silver-washed fritillary at Frestenfalla, flying with high brown fritillary today

Aeshna cyanea - caught patrolling over a small Sphagnum-choked pool in the forest

Coenagrion hastulatum are getting thin on the ground at Frestenfalla

In the afternoon we headed out to Torekov rev, which was jam-packed with sun-worshippers. The kids got into the water and I checked out the waders. Not bad here considering the crowds with a scattering of stuff including; dunlin (25), greenshank (3), spotted redshank (1), common sandpiper (5), bar-tailed godwit (1), grey plover (1) and little ringed plover (1). Last stop was Ripagården where there were few waders - wood sandpiper (1) and common sandpiper (5) but the sea off the breakwater was refreshing.