Blue Hawker ovipositing

This Blue Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) showed an unusual interest for the newly logged pine trunks lying across the pond by the Goshawk feeding station. It even looked like it was ovipositing - or at least trying to - on the surface of the trunks. Is that normal?

Still Cranes in the valley

The september Crane evenings is in my mind always a potential great spectacle on my local patch. About 340 Cranes were counted last night as they flew in to roost in Lake Fläcksjön. A bit late but the relatively wet and mild autumn can make them linger for another week or two. Normally they peak before the 20:th of september with about 800-1.000 individuals before they start their journey south towards Spain and France.

Good season for Camberwell Beauties

It´s a good season for Camberwell Beauties. My garden "butterfly restaurant" has been attracting up to 4 of them together and with at least 25 Red Admirals and some Commas. I don´t think I´ve ever had as many butterflies on my apple-compost in late summer/ autumn. They are in pristine condition this time of the year and you can easily see the red velvety tone on the upper side. That colour is not very visible after hibernation, when they tend to look more dark, blackish brown.

Purple Emperor in my garden!

When I started to look at butterflies (2006), Purple Emperor was a hard to see species, confined to the very south of Sweden exclusively. I remember going there with my family and a bag of rotting bananas soaked in wine (accidentally) to lure it down from the canopies. We succeeded and the butterfly came flying past our faces very close, but I never managed to take any pictures. Since then I´ve seen it many times abroad, but always with the feeling it is a great butterfly to see and photograph. During the last ten years it has made a remarkable expansion of it´s range in Sweden and is now found up to the north of the county Upland, some 650 km north of it´s former core area. In Västmanland it was first sighted 3 years ago, and with a couple more records every year since then, it has been on every butterfly-watchers want-to-see-list locally. I baited my garden for weeks and now suddenly there it sat! On some fermenting pieces of melon. He´s imperial high-ness…the Purple Emperor! In my own garden!

Silver-washed Fritillaries just emerged

The heat seems to bring out new butterflies. This silver-washed Fritillary appeared in our garden today and although I might have seem some yesterday this is probably the first days for the year they are out around here. Nevertheless a high-summer species, but it is a bit later than normal. In fact quite a few butterflies have been late to emerge this year. Was happy to see and photograph a Purple hairstreak in my garden the other day too. A first for the garden list in fact.

Great Grey Owls

Great Grey Owls haven´t had a great year in central Sweden so far. But there are some pockets with voles in the landscape that attract Owls. We are blessed to have some of these gorgeous birds in our area this year.

Good time for Capercaillie leks

The cold start of the swedish spring tipped over to warmer weather with easter. Suddenly birds became very active on the Grouse leks. Now the lekking season for Capercaillies seems to be peaking in the central parts of Sweden. These pictures where taken by Simon Green from a hide on our lekking site in the Black River Valley the other day. This morning there was again very good activity on the spot. No females reported here yet, but on other sites mating season is in full swing.