hot and windy

 Dragonflies were the order of the day, despite the windy conditions and the fact that I would probably of been better off birding! My first Coenagrion puella were on the wing at a number of sites.

Out and about again today in the hot sun and windy conditions. Hit Drängstorp first hoping for Coenagrion armatum but instead had to settle for a huge emergence of Coenagrion lunulatum and my first Leucorrhinia rubicunda for the Atlas square.

 Coenagrion pulchellum

Next stop was Boarp, which was disappointing as the  water level in the ordinarily shallow and very good fourth pond was way up. Did get more puella here though and Coenagrion pulchellum, but very small numbers and no sign of any emergence at the site.

 Hovs Hallar produced at least seven migrating honey buzzards in a one-hour watch

Hovs Hallar for an hour in the middle of the day was good for honey buzzards (seven through) but the hoped-for rosefinches failed to sing. After lunch I had a quick look at the pool at Lönhult but it was too exposed for a reasonable odo-survey.

 Mute swan

Last stop of the day was another speculative listen for rosefinch at Öllövsstrand, again no joy, just a noisy thrush nightingale. The stars here though were two territorial map butterflies.

 Map butterfly

Driving out I glimpsed a male black redstart around the farm buildings at Öllöv and Number 1 and I returned later finding the nest-site and watching both adults shuttling to-and-fro with food for the hungry chicks. Nice find.

Last bird of the day was perhaps the best find, a breeding pair of black redstarts feeding young at Öllöv

Map time

Busy this week bit not so busy as to fail to notice that second brood map butterflies are now on the menu in southern Sweden. The best sighting this week though came on Monday when a superb male purple emperor materialised at my feet.

Club-tail

A day out with the kids to give Mrs B a break turned into an invertebrate session. We started at Klarningen where we booted out the first patch Odonates of the year - my first club-tailed dragonfly in Sweden and a nice beautiful demoiselle too. The only bird highlight was a lonely-looking golden plover.

Club-tailed dragonfly (Gomphus vulgatissimus) - a nice, if predictable tick at Klarningen this morning.

Beautiful demoiselle Calyopteryx virgo, Klarningen

After a quiet spell on the beach we headed round Älemossen (red-backed shrikes and whinchats) to the dragonfly pools at Frestensfälla. Here we had yet more species of Odonata; both Leucorrhinia rubicunda and dubia, Libelulla quadrimaculata, northern damselfly and large red damselfly.

Another patch first for me at Frestensfälla was this map butterfly.

Northern damselfly Coenagrion hastulatum at Frestensfälla today.

Large red damselfly Pyrrhosoma nympula at Frestensfälla today.

Double whammy!

On the pretext of doing some reconnaisance ahead of tomorrow's trip around NW Skåne with Birding Copenhagen, Mrs B, Number 3 and I headed out to look for 'other people's' dotterel and great white egrets. I should know better by now I guess. Twitching is best left to the experts. We failed to find the dotterel in a very empty field, three golden plover were a small consolation indeed.

We then headed to Allerumskog. Mrs B's map-reading allowed us to take in the sights and sounds of rural Skåne at some length until we finally arrived at the wetland that has hosted a pair of great white egrets for the past five days. Imagine our pleasure when on arrival we found two dogs swimming lazily in the lake... This site was however interesting for other reasons and soon it was heads down checking out invertebrates (the egrets were probably sky-dancing above us). The easy highlight here were my first Swedish map butterflies.

The kind of maps Mrs B enjoys. Map butterflies colonised SW Skåne in the early 90s and are obviously spreading north. Not sure if they have got to BK yet?

The pool here was also good for dragonflies with teneral four-spot chasers much in evidence and a few hairy dragonflies flying about through the marginal vegetation. Nice one.

Hairy dragonfly - a Skåne tick for me

Driving home with a double-dip safely in the bag we decided to lunch at Farhult - knot (1) was a year-tick.

Farhult

Penultimate stop of the day was at Sandön where we were gob-smacked to find two white-winged black terns. [It transpired that other birders had seen them earlier but still self-found in my book]. A good reason not to carry a pager! Also here were at least eight little gulls, including a spanking adult.

Last stop of the day was a quick check on Ranarpstrand - nothing doing here really in a very quick check.

micro-tern