Fandens Hul

My first chance to photograph perched Somatochlora flavomaculata came during our recent visit to Fandens Hul (Tegelstrup Hegn) near Helsingør in Denmark.

During our recent trip to the Danish Nehalennia site we failed to locate any sprites despite walking the area thoroughly for an hour. A huge disappointment considering there were records either side of our visit. The habitat was a carbon-copy of the site I visited last year in Sweden, where I also struggled to locate this species, eventually securing a female. Consolation came in the form of some nice encounters with Somatochlora flavomaculata and Lestes virens.

Newly-minted Lestes virens were skulking around the edges of the wetland at Fandens Hul.

virens!

Sandön is always good for an osprey or two.

Number 2 and I headed out to work the coast between Sandön and Rönnen this morning. Sandön was packed with birds and very exciting. Ducks were few and far between but did include five pintail. Waders held my attention for longer with a large flock of calidrids including a number of great birds. Two sanderling darting about quickly caught my attention and skulking in amongst a huge flock of over 100 snipe was a single dark and mysterious adult broad-billed sandpiper. It stuck out like Johnny Cash at a Hari Krishna get-together. Amazing numbers of little stints too with 17 counted and probably more. Just six curlew sandpipers and a small flock of 35 knot rounded off the action. Overhead two ospreys searched for fish and a 1K black tern hawked about.

Rönnen in a quick look produced more waders, notably a single avocet and eight curlew sandpipers.

After lunch we all went for a quick look at the sedge-mire at Gånarp. Fifteen minutes here was enough to secure Lestes virens for the year-list. Plenty of Aeshna juncea flying here too despite light rain and overcast conditions. A pleasant end to the day.

Lestes virens is a smart little damselfly. I just need to find a colony in BK...

Mmmm... stunted lower appendages!

Two year-ticks today!

This male Lestes virens was just one of a swarm noted at an off-patch site near Gånarp.

Mmmm, nice! Mrs B is starting to call me a nerd when I whip out my hand-lens and start looking at anal claspers...

The site at Gånarp, it looks very good and I will try to get back next year. Not got much of this kind of habitat in BK but searching it out is a priority. We found two possible contenders today.

After dropping off Number 1 at school the rest of Team Benstead headed off to scope out a few dragonfly sites for next year. [I have taken on 8 BK squares for the 2009-2014 Dragonfly Atlas of Skåne, which is why there has been so much dragonfly action of late.] Our first stop was Gånarp and a beautiful little site crammed with Lestes virens. One on patch last week and now this! Too much. Afterwards we headed back on patch to check out a few sites that might offer the same biotope, we kind of succeeded but no sign of any more virens. A single honey buzzard (probably a resident) was our only birdy reward.

Aeshna mixta (female) at Rönnen.

In the afternoon I jettisoned the team (who were going shopping) and headed out to do the nearby coast from Sandön to Farhult. Sandön had a scattering of waders, best of the lot was my first sanderling of the year but also notable were; grey plover (1), knot (10), dunlin (60), ruff (2), bar-tailed godwit (2), curlew (58), redshank (6) and turnstone (1).

Rönnen was quiet, the geese had taken over and I could not avoid flushing 850 barnacle geese from the paths where they were happily grazing. Clearly no-one had been birding much today, which was why I could roll up and find these dollying about on the water...

Surprise of the afternoon was not one but four red-necked phalaropes at Rönnen, my first multiple encounter in Skåne and a year-tick to boot! There are three in this photograph (honest!), taken at long range on macro setting...

Other waders at Rönnen included; avocet (13), knot (1), another sanderling, Temminck's stint (1), three spotted redshank and at least 15 wood sandpipers. Last stop of the day was Farhult, thrashed about behind the reedbed for dragonflies and then did the birds. Waders again providing the interest. Another single sanderling made me wonder if I was being followed. Also here; avocet (4), grey plover (3), knot (21), curlew sandpiper (1), dunlin (105), bar-tailed godwit (20, most flying past including one with an orange leg flag - French?), an impressive 57 redshank and 14 greenshank.

Dragonfly tick!

Nipped out this morning briefly to check Eskilstorpstrand (hoping for little gull or black tern, both reported nearby and just off-patch recently) but nothing seen of note. Also spent an hour up the tower at Klarningen too before breakfast. The teal flock has reached 51 and a few fieldfare, yellow wagtail and tree pipit were on the move. Waders were not very obvious but I scraped up ringed plover (2), golden plover (6), lapwing (75), snipe (1) and curlew (2). On the way home drove over the top but the high ground was too foggy to bird.

In the afternoon we all checked out the loop trail near Killeröd, which I thought we had walked before but actually was new! Nice walk, mixtures of different conifer species and plenty of softwood too. Some nice wet hollows choked with Sphagnum as well. Despite the overcast conditions we did well for dragonflies; recording Aeshna grandis, Aeshna juncea, Sympetrum danae, Sympetrum vulgatum, Sympetrum sanguineum and best of all a single female Lestes virens (a lifer). Birds did not feature much although we did get a pair of bullfinch and a female red-backed shrike.

Aeshna grandis, lots of these guys on the wing at the moment. One of my favourite dragonflies.

Lestes virens a female, my first in Sweden or anywhere for that matter. I originally mistook this for dryas but the pterostigma was brown with pales sides and the ovipositor sheath (although not pale but bicoloured, contra Dijkstra and Lewington) was gently pointed.

A rather cross grass snake I showed the kids, they were quite keen until it stank the place out by voiding a cloacal secretion that smelled strongly of rotten garlic. Who needs poison?

Female Aeshna juncea in the hand - such good views allow the diagnostic yellow costa and yellow spots behind the eyes to be appreciated.

On the way home we quickly checked Hålehallstugan hoping for more dragonflies but the weather had deteriorated too much. Big flock of tufted duck here though (19) and a single little grebe.