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Saturday, May 18, 2013

armatum again and again

The fantastic weather in the afternoon led to an exciting run of discoveries, with Coenagrion armatum found at two further sites in BK, this time in Skåne and therefore qualifying for the Atlas.

Had a spell birding around Gröthögarna in the early morning, on tenterhooks most of the time waiting for confirmation of my black scoter. Eventually just before 0900 the sms came through that the bird had been reported by Nils Kjellen - phew, being a single observer is harrowing at times. Birding at Rålehamn, Norra Ängalag and Ripagården was rather subdued. Barnacles were moving in a very small way, and yellow wagtails were on the ground in small numbers. Norra Ängalag produced the best birds with my first BK little tern of the year, as well as single ruff and dunlin.

 A Chrysomela populi at Rammsjöstrand brightened up the afternoon

In the afternoon Mrs B and I took advantage of the fact that the kids were at a party and got out into the unfeasibly warm weather (28 degrees, sorry of you are in the UK reading this). Dragonflies were flying and we headed first to check the pond at Glimminge. My first Ischnura elegans and Enallagma were on the wing and we did not have to wait long before a Coenagrion armatum male sauntered past! Bloody hell! Also here a grass snake and plenty of common newts and even a few great cresteds.

Checking a few wetlands around Rammsjöstrand failed to turn up any more armatum so we headed for Flytermossen. And guess what here we found seven armatum including two females! Just amazing!

Libellula quadrimaculata was a year-tick for me today (here recently emerged at Rammsjöstrand)

Flytermossen (Torekov) finally produced some female Coenagrion armatum, as well as at least five males, my first multiple sighting.

Coenagrion armatum at Flytermossen

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