super Sunday

Tufties in flight at Vysterborg today whilst I hunted in vain for Sympecma fusca...

Spent a large part of the day in the field today under a blazing sun. Started late but made the most of it. Stora Hultsstrand was excellent with a turnstone, bar-tailed godwit (1) and two Sandwich terns all providing year-ticks, plus the only barn swallow of the day. Ranarpsstrand had five gadwall and two resting common terns (year-tick number four). Nearby Segelstorpsstrand failed to provide anything new.

After lunch I quickly toured a few likely spots for Sympecma fusca but failed to find any. Full of hope I visited the only site I have seen a Sympecma in BK and skunked there too. It must have been a wayward individual but I am still hoping to find where it came from.

Later we checked out Dagshög quickly - gannet (1), osprey (1) and a surprise carrion crow. Next stop was Påarps Mal for gadwall (pair), shoveler (male) and 77 roosting golden plover. We BBQ'd our dinner at Ripagården picking up a solitary whimbrel south in the process.

cherry-picking - 13082013

Took the kids for a walk this afternoon whilst the car was being serviced. We looked for dragonflies on the ponds at Lindab and Vysterborg but the weather remained wet and windy and we spent more time picking and eating fruit and sheltering from the regular showers. We recorded four species of odonates and Vysterborg had four tufted duck ducklings and that was as exciting as it got!

finally a full day in the field

Finally a day off and a chance to catch up with a few things that have been spotted over the last week. The day started well with an icterine warbler singing from the garden! Hit Tvehöga first and took about twenty minutes to track down the singing red-breasted flycatcher, difficult amongst the noise created by all the other songbirds in this nice patch of beech forest. A quick look at Klarningen revealed a singing marsh warbler near the tower and some fluffy moorhen chicks, but little else of note.

Driving through Hulrugered on my way to check some dragonfly sites I stopped for a roadside pair of cranes and again for a mistle thrush. Bränneslätt mire was very wet and full of Odonates, my first Leucorrhina dubia and Cordulia aenea of the year were long overdue and there were plenty of the former here as usual.

Leucorrhina dubia - my first of the year.

Next stop was the pools at Bösketorp, always good for Odonates, there was plenty to look at as usual. New for the year here were Leucorrhina rubicunda  and  Coenagrion lunulatum. Birds included my first little grebe for the year (!) and a single green sandpiper.

Leucorrhinia rubicunda - note the reddish pterostigma, completely yellow costa and the larger broader abdominal spots.

Coenagrion hastulatum

 

Coenagrion lunulatum

In the afternoon I searched Vysterborg again hoping for Sympecma fusca, I had one female here last year and have yet to repeat the feat in BK... Plenty of Odos though with Libellula depressa (male, first of year) and Brachytron pratense (ditto) taking the honours. Some bird breeding evidence here as well, with young coot and shelduck being my first of the year.

Brachytron pratense at Vysterborg

Last stop of the day was the pond at Lönhult, here there were two 2K whooper swans feeding on waste seed potatoes as well as more Coenagrion lunulatum and a single Brachytron pratense.

Whopper goose or whooper swan

Glorious 14th

An adult female Montagu's harrier was a nice way to start the day, it crossed the road in front of me on my way to the post office.

A busy morning in the office and running errands that started really well. After dropping the kids at school I decided to check the 'big field' at Ljungbyholm. I had not even got there when I noticed a slender harrier crossing the road, I sped up to intercept, jumped out and grabbed my camera and managed just two shots, one was terrible but I was overjoyed to see the other was the above image. After a bit of lightening up on the computer it revealed a lovely female Montagu's, only my second BK record. I gave chase as it drifted off by moving the car but lost the bird in the process... The field had two resting whimbrel but still no sign of any golden plover for my BK year-list.

The sun finally came out in the late afternoon and I headed out again to look for Odos. Temperatures remained rather low though and a check of the ponds at Vysterborg and Hålehallstugan. Vysterborg had singing garden and icterine warbler and Hålehallstugan produced the usual red-necked grebes, two red-backed shrikes and a hawfinch.

During the morning I belatedly noticed an Artportalen record of two singing great snipes at Klarningen on the 12th... I was gutted but then pleased when Johan Hamringe texted out that they were still present. So after dinner I headed out for an evening session. On arrival at Klarningen the snipe were singing sporadically - job done. Also here six Temminck's stint, hopefully part of a spring build-up in numbers. On the way home I did some owling and managed to get a tawny owl for the year. Great day, gotta love May.

10092012

 Ovipositing Aeshna mixta, the most common dragonfly on the wing at this time of the year.

Had a great walk out on Monday morning last but have been too busy doing office-work and getting the garden in shape ahead of my trip to northern mexico next week to blog it out. Walked Gröthögarna up to Ripagården and back. The highlight was a poor encounter with the bluethroat near Norrebrohamn, whiclt trying to find it though a red-throated pipit flew over south. The bushes were not exactly heaving with migrants but there was a steady trickle of sub-saharan stuff and finches were noticeable for perhaps the first time this autumn...

 Aeshna mixta

 A common wasp chewing the head off a Lestes sponsa!

In the afternoon taking advantage of some quite warm weather I hunted dragonflies at a few sites around BK - Aeshnas were dominant with grandis, cyanea and especially mixta on the wing at all the sites checked. Best bird was a hobby over Vysterborg but no sign of any Sympecma here despite a good kick about.

BK first - Sympecma fusca

 Number 2 earned herself an ice-cream by finding my first Orthetrum cancellatum of the year at Vysterborg this afternoon.

 Had an hour at Klarningen in the morning. After some overnight rain there was some evidence of an influx of Tringa and I did my best to find something exciting but had to settle for common sandpiper (1), green sandpiper (1), greenshank (3) and wood sandpiper (12+). Two male garganeys and two male gadwall floated about.

In the afternoon Number 2 and I took advantage of the sunny, albeit slightly chilly, weather and headed to the ponds at nearby Vysterborg. I started looking at this site last year as part of my dragonfly atlas work and it has produced 13 species to date. Today the big surprise was a single female Sympecma fusca. I had almost given up hope of finding this species in BK when one just flutters up in front of me. Small, drab and brown it landed on a twig close to the ground and the alarm bells rang. Number 2 obediently went into statue mode, whilst I got the all-important confirmatory photo and then we caught it for a more leisurely examination. What a result. Probably a first for NW Skåne.

 Here she is! A female Sympecma fusca, the first record for BK. When I moved here the BK Odonata list on Artportalen stood at a meagre 5 species. Since then myself and others have taken the total to 39!

Also flying at Vysterborg today were Coenagrion pulchellum, Enallagma cyathigerum, Ischnura elegans, Brachytron pratense, Libellula quadrimaculata and my first Orthetrum cancellatum of the year.

Mmmm! Abdomen tip.

More atlas work

The well-hooked hamule of the secondary genitalia on male Leucorrhinia rubicunda is the most reliable feature.

We all headed out for a circular walk in the Venedike area this morning, taking in a number of dragonfly sites in the process. First up were the Venedike dammar. Plenty of pulchellum here but nothing out of the ordinary. Bengt-Olsmossen was heaving with over 250 Libellula quadrimaculata, as well as smaller numbers of both Leucorrhinia dubia and rubicunda. Tramping through the woods to the sedge mire near Simonstorp we went outside BK for a while. Here we had a nice soaring honey buzzard and found a single male Calopteryx virgo in the outflow stream.

After lunch I nipped out for a quick look at the nearby Vysterborg pools. Plenty of marsh warblers in the nettles and rank vegetation around the pools here. The far pool also produced some good dragonflies with my first Lestes sponsa of the year, as well as Anax imperator and Brachytron pratense.

This honey blur was just yards from the BK boundary today, on the wrong side...