and that brings up the 50 for England...

Time for a dragonfly 'clean-up' today, with a 360 km route down into the south-east corner of Skåne to cosh off four species. Just outside Munka Ljungby I had a feeding white stork, which remained the bird of the day. The weather report was favourable, although my first site of the morning (the Ronneå at Billinge) was hit by a sharp downpour just as I arrived. Plenty of Calopteryx splendens and Platycnemis dodging the rain but no sign of any flying Libellula fulva, my target species. I worked the nearby trees hoping to find hooked-up adults but with no luck, then I walked the river-bank hoping for an emerging individual and found a fresh female. It climbed onto my finger and slowly spread it's wings before heading off on it's maiden flight.

My first Swedish Libellula fulva, it has been sometime since I last saw this species.

Next site was The water treatment ponds at Vomb. I had to be disciplined here because the area is monster for birds. Leaving the car a goshawk crossed the track, with an entourage of angry crows. Walking south through the ponds I was searching for just one species, Aeshna isoceles (the Norfolk hawker), another omission on my Swedish dragonfly list. Species diversity improved the further south I went and after about a kilometre I came to a U-shaped pool, here I had my first Anax imperator of the year and then shortly after that my first Swedish isoceles patrolling a tiny territory in the corner. These dragonflies really glow, a vision of ginger and green. No sign of any water-soldier (Stratiotes aloides) though, a plant this species is normally associated with. A Gomphus vulgatissimus here looked out of place. Walking back a red kite successfully scopped up my first coot chick of the year.

Thrashing on I headed for a small wetland near Fågeltofta that produces huge numbers of Lestes dryas. The hardest thing about seeing this species was negotiating the barbed wire fence! Once down in the basin, the Juncus was heaving with dryas. Things were going well.

The business end of a male dryas.

Nice to get a Lestes on the year-list - species number 49 on my Swedish list.

Libellula depressa were present at several of the sites looked at today.

Last stop was a blatant twitch but how could I ignore the presence of four Sympetrum fonscolombii at Simrishamn having got so close! This site is coastal and very compact and it did not take me long to find the fonscolombii, a huge rarity in Sweden. It was surprisingly difficult to count them though, but I think there were two patrolling males and then at one point a pair in tandem egg-laying. This female is the only one ever recorded in Sweden and was first seen yesterday.

Peripheral colonies of fonscolombii are prone to instability but this species may establish itself at Simrishamn. Exciting stuff and number 50 on the list too.

The pool at Simrishamn, shame it is 170 km from my house!

On the way home I stopped off again at the Ronneå at Billinge. This time it was warm and dry and the river was packed with Libellula fulva. A 200 metre walk upstream produced at least 30 males, four pairs in the wheel and one egg-laying female. Gomphus vulgatissimus were evident too with at least 15 patrolling males along this stretch. A great end to the day.

Female fulva.

Male fulva.

Another male Gomphus vulgatissimus photo, sorry but I like them.

rODOtrip

I rarely leave BK these days, it has almost developed into agrophobia, but this year I am determined to catch up with those dragonfly species that I have yet to see in Sweden that are reasonably close at hand. And that means getting in the car and going to see them!

Mrs B kicked me out the door bright and early this morning and told me not to come back until I had seen a new dragonfly. I drove SW towards Dagstorpsjön, stopping en route at the beautiful stretch of the Ronneå at Herrevads Kloster. It was still early but the Odos were awake, the meadows by the river were teeming with Calopteryx splendens, Coenagrion pulchellum and Platycnemis pennipes. A careful search of the river eventually produced two patrolling male Gomphus vulgatissimus. Three year-ticks in that little haul - a great start.

Platycnemis pennipes were flying in good numbers on the Ronneå today, it appears to be absent from the lower reaches of the Stensån in BK. These were my first in Skåne!

I love gomphids, this is one of two male Gomphus vulgatissimus watched patrolling the Ronneå this morning.

Calopteryx species are so exotic, this splendens was one of over 200 along a short stretch of the Ronneå this morning.

Driving on I reached Dagstorpsjön by mid-morning and started searching along the mostly treed shoreline. Arriving at small bay I was overjoyed to find a male Epitheca bimaculata patrolling along the shoreline. By jumping from tussock to tussock out into the lake margin I was able to get quite close but no chance of a photo sadly. I just had to enjoy it through the bins. I got most of the features, you could even tell the gender but I could not get the 'twinspots' in the hind wing. A big dragonfly and a welcome lifer.

Drove back north, this time heading for Lärkeröd gravel pits. Patric Carlsson put this site on the map a couple of years ago by finding a small colony of Leucorrhinia albifrons and I was finally going to see them. On arrival I bumped into Thomas Wallin and we were straight onto a Leucorrhina albifrons. Well the colony is not small anymore! We must have seen over a 100, mostly teneral individuals. A big emergence was underway. Patric turned up later on and showed us round the site. On the shores of Rossjön we found two gordian worms. I recorded 14 Odo species during two hours here and missed a few species that were flying. It is a great little site and always produces a few good birds too. A single woodlark greeted me on the access track, a pair of hobbies were obviously in residence and a nutcracker did a fly by. Loaded up with gen on the dragonfly sites of the area I headed to a nearby pond to look for Leucorrhinia pectoralis. There was one good male present which escaped a photo and also the animal pictured below, which I think is one too but it is presumably sub-adult. dubia and rubicunda were also flying here!

A male Leucorrhinia albifrons, only my second record of this species, so pretty exciting stuff.

The Lärkeröd colony of Leucorrhinia albifrons is evidently well-established, now we just need some westerly dispersal into BK.

Part of Patric's guided tour at Lärkeröd included a look at nearby Rossjön, here I spotted a gordian worm. We were stumped by it at the time but the internet soon solved the riddle of it's identity and bizarre lifestyle. Gordian worms (or hair worms) are nematamorphs, a phylum of freshwater invertebrates. They live most of their lives as 20-30cm long, ribbon-thin animals, in freshwater, where they mate and produce eggs. Once eggs develop into larvae, larval gordian worms must infect an aquatic insect larvae, which metamorphosizes and carries the gordiid onto shore. Once onshore, the gordiid encysted inside the aquatic insect must be eaten by a cricket or grasshopper, in which the gordian worm feeds and matures. Gordian worms only feed while inside their cricket or grasshopper host. For the gordian to complete its lifecycle, the infected cricket must then die and fall into water. Blimey!

Female Brachytron pratense egg-laying at Lärkeröd today.

I saw one good 'yellow-spotted' male pectoralis at the pond near Rossjön today and this beast. I think the robustness, black pterostigma and the shape and colour of the S7 spot make the id sound.

My last gasp was to blast back towards BK, stopping at Benmöllan for dipper and grey wagtail and at Perstorps enefälad for false heath fritillary. Last stop of the day was at Klarningen where half an hour produced nothing unsual. A great day out.

Back on patch, Perstorps enefälad produced at least two false heath fritillaries.