rOdotrip 2 - the Nehalennia gamble

With the window slowly closing on the Nehalennia season, I cracked and decided to try and find them on a warm but overcast day. A gamble that just paid off. It's a 3.5-4 hour drive up to Asby in Östergötland from my house, ie a lot further than I normally drive for a day out. But Nehalennia is a special species and a must-see beast. Believed extinct in Sweden until re-discovered in 2006, it is currently known from just five sites.

Arriving at 0930 I quickly located the site, a fantastic mire, quite an open 'sward' in places and a submerged aquatic macrophyte species (hornwort?) growing in amongst the sedge, bogbean and horsetail. I was surprised by it's heterogeneity and also it's accessibility. Sadly I do not think we have any habitat quite like this in BK but I live in hope of turning up a site nearer home. [That said, there is a site in Denmark which is nearer and I hope to visit it soon.] As I cleared the trees around the mire margin a Coenagrion flew up and was swiftly netted, as I expected it was a male johanssoni - a bonus species present here at the southern margin of it's range and only my second encounter in Sweden.

My first male Coenagrion johanssoni for at least five years, S2 in profile is just splendid.

All boded well, but it was some time before I coaxed out a single mature female Nehalennia. Tiny, short-winged, with a short, pale pterostigma, she fluttered up into the net like a teneral, it was sublime! Looking up for a change I noticed a goshawk flying by with what looked awfully like a red squirrel in it's talons.

If Odonata are your thing then it does not get much better than ticking Nehalennia. Nothing wrong with mature females either.

Nice!

Also here my first Aeshna juncea of the year, as well as Lestes sponsa, Coenagrion pulchellum (1), Erythomma najas, Leucorrhinia dubia and Libellula quadrimaculata. With no sign of any sun on the horizon I headed home at 1130.

A 'blue' female juncea, my first of the year.

Female johanssoni are as distinctive as the males.

No time for stopping on the way home and mostly grey and overcast anyway. Did stop at the Smedje near Skottorp hoping for a burst of river warbler, but no luck. Did get the Blyth's reed warbler again though at Dömestorp, which had added green sandpiper to it's repertoire since I last listened. By way of explanation the nearby eastern pools of Skottorps våtmark were crammed with waders. 'Management' is spot on here with a nice draw-down from bankful over the last week that has pulled in migrants. Totals included: wigeon (1), teal (25), shoveler (6), ruff (4), green sandpiper (10) , spotted redshank (4), greenshank (15) and massive 85 wood sandpipers. Along the river were at least four Sympetrum sanguineum, my first of the year. Had to check Klarningen after that just to compare; ruff (1), wood sandpiper (5) and redshank (2). Oh well!

My fourth Odo year-tick today was Sympetrum sanguineum, closer to home at Skottorps våtmark.