Welcome to my blog about birds, butterflies, moths and other aspects of nature that I mainly enjoy in Svartådalen – The Black River Valley, in the county Västmanland, Sweden.
This is my turf, where I love to be, where me and my family have a house (in the lovely village Fläckebo), and where I also share a lot of nature experience with visiting people from all around.
Our new Goshawk feeding station is still primitive but at least starting to produce some pictures. Erik Berg and Magnus Friberg are the first succesful photographers. click their linked names to see more of their excellent work! The pictures shown above are by Erik Berg.
After having enjoyed a Hawk owl and a Pygmy Owl, both at very close quarters, we stumbled upon this Great Grey Owl quite unexpectedly in the forest. Giving hope for a good owl season here.
This log - prepared with margarin on the backside - has been quite an attraction to Great-spot- and Grey-headed Woodpecker lately but now Mrs Black is taking over. It´s very very rare to get Black Woodpeckers attracted to a feeder. it´s only the second time ever in my experience and the first time in the Black River area.
On monday I photographed a solitary Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) by Lake Öjejön in the Black River Valley. It wasn´t until I looked closer at the pictures I realised it looked like the continental race europaeus. However I have no previous experience from this subspecies. It´s a very rare bird here and despite almost 40 years of birdwatching I have never seen any before. Do they look like this?
The season for Eagle-photography in the Black River valley is coming to an end and it´s been very lively in front of the hide the last two weeks. Many visitors have had a great experience and lots of great images have been produced on a daily basis. Just to give you some examples here are some of Lars Gejl and Jörgen Petterssons pics. See more of their excellent work on their respective linked websites as well!
