Scarce Heath

16:th of June 2009
Scarce Heath is another of the local Butterflies with a very restricted distribution in Sweden and eastern Europe. Easily identified by it´s much darker brown (rather than orange) undersides. On our second attempt this year we manage to find - again – 1(!) single individual. Unbelievable! Hopefully they have just started to hatch and will fly in better numbers within short.

Frigga´s Fritillary

16:th of June 2009
Finding Frigga´s Fritillary in the county of Västmanland haven´t been easy. It´s a northern butterfly on it´s southern frontier down here. When we finally made it to the site last year, it was too late in the season, on last week´s excursion the weather was drab. Hopes have been down to nill on this one. Today the weather was almost perfect and plenty of Butterflies were flying, but it still took us a couple of hours and sheer luck to locate one (!) individual. An obviously bigger and less bright orange Fritillary than the more common cousins Bog– and Pearl-bordered Fritillary that both fly in good numbers on the same site. As you can see it´s in perfect condition and so fresh and still that it appeared just newly hatched. Here it sits on a leaf of the hostplant; cloudberry!

Frigga´s belly

16:th of June 2009
Frigga´s Fritillary is most easily identified by the pattern of the underside.

Shiny, happy people

2:nd of June 2009
The Naturetrek group who spent 8 days watching birds in Sweden. Relaxed and happy after a wonderful day on a high alpine plateau with lots of good birds in lovely weather. Thank´s for a wonderful week, people!

Feeding

2:nd of June 2009
Julia really enjoys feeding Siberian Jays. In fact most of us tried, and got them to eat out of our hands. A family group of at least 4 birds. Such lovely creatures!

To the top

1:st of June 2009
Getting to the lekking site for Great Grey Snipe proved to be a bit of a challenge to some of us. A path acting more like a river and some deep snow and a cold wind demanded not only wellies, but also warming fleece blankets. To Andras it was worth every bit of it. (.. and on this picture he has not even seen them yet!) At least 4 males performed.

The Skua

31:st of May 2009
A Long-tailed Skua gives a close meeting, an almost religious experience.

Reindeer on ice

31:st of May 2009
Cooling down.

The Dotterel

31:st of May 2009
The Dotterels are more than obliging today.

The Bluethroat

31:st of May 2009
The Bluethroat sings along.

Ring Ouzel

29:th of May 2009
Singing from a treetop. (through the scope)

Birding the fall

30:th of May 2009
Sweden´s highest waterfall – Njupeskär – in Fulufjällets National Park is a haven for Ring Ouzels. Dennis tries to find them in the mist.

Grizzled Skipper

29:th of May
The Grizzle... d Skipper.

Group saw Lynx

23:rd of May 2009
We had a really enjoyable weekend with this very enthusiastic and self driven group of nature-lovers. The question is if the highlight of all wasn´t in fact a mammal? In the late saturday night on our way to look for Pygmy Owl, a Lynx is suddenly sitting on the roadside in front of us.
We slow down to watch it in the lights of the car the few seconds we have, before it jumps off into the woods. People in both vans get to see it (though not all) and we who did, can only say; Wow! This is the first time ever a Birdsafarisweden group have seen a Lynx together.
Two days later a Lynx picture is published in the local newspaper, taken a few miles away the day before ours, also on a roadside, might very well be the same straggling (most likely immature) animal.

Thrush Nightingale in concert

21:st of May 2009
A group from the British tour-company Wildwings arrive in enjoyable weather and we start by visiting Ängsö. Some nice Slavonian Grebes, plenty of good flowers, some Butterflies and a couple of singing Thrush Nightingales jumpstart the trip before we set off to have a glorious evening in company of Great Grey Owls. One of the Nightingales really offer good and close views as you can see.