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The only birds of prey I see here in my tiny town in south-eastern Sweden are Red Kites (Milvus milvus). They're usually soaring far too high up and away over the forest to get acceptable photos of. This morning however a pair was kind enough to come down low enough I could take ( these... )

Current Mood: satisfied

It's definitely spring here now and on my walk this afternoon I spotted these stunningly bright yellow flowers huddling in the (dry) grass of a neglected front garden. They're Pheasant's Eyes (Adonis vernalis) and this garden is the only place I've ever seen it. It's a very rare plant in the wild here in Sweden but there's supposed to be cultivars around even though I've never seen any myself.

Click to enlarge:

two yellow daisy-like flowers growing close to the ground

( one more photo... )

Current Mood: mellow

I've never seen Goosanders (Mergus merganser) before but when I visited a nearby town the harbour was dotted with small flocks of them. They're much larger in reality than I thought they would be.

Click to enlarge:

three birds floating on the waves, one with brown head & grey body and two with black head & white bodies

Current Mood: surprised

It's been a long time since I've had Long-Tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus caudatus) visiting my feeders in winter but now they're suddenly here every day. It started Saturday with only two of them:

Click to enlarge:

two small white and black birds with long tail feathers feeding on fatballs

Every day they brought more and more friends and this morning there were ( five of them... )

Current Mood: happy

Midsummer's Eve is the second most celebrated holiday here in Sweden and like Christmas a lot of the celebration centres around food and drink, but for Midsummer flowers are also a large part. Particularly wild flowers. May and June are the big months for wild flowers here and all the photos I posted below are just some of all the wild flowers I saw on my walk this morning.

Click to enlarge:
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

pale pink umbellate flowers

( more flowers... )

Current Mood: mellow

I usually only see Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) in our stream in late Winter/early Spring. This year one of the pairs looks to have nested here too because earlier this week I saw this mum with her three tiny babies.

Click to enlarge:

brown bird with three brown-and-white babies on the water

Current Mood: peaceful

Until just a couple of years ago I wasn't aware we even had Collared Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) in Sweden but since then I've learned they started to appear here in the late 40s and can now be found in many cities and towns in the southern half of the country. Apparently also in my little town and on my walk earlier today I managed to get this really nice photo of one of them:

Click to enlarge:

pale beige bird looking inquisitive

Current Mood: mellow

We've had quite a chilly spring here in South-Eastern Sweden but it's finally started getting warmer. On my walk this afternoon I saw SO MANY Wood Anemones (Anemone nemorosa):

Click to enlarge:

lots of small white flowers in woodland

( More photos... )

Current Mood: good

Usually I only see their tracks in the snow but on my walk today I spotted these three Roe Deers (Capreolus capreolus) and managed to shap a photo before they spooked and ran off.

Click to enlarge:

three deers in the snow

Current Mood: mellow

In England the Robin might be the Christmas bird par excellence, but here in Sweden it's the Bullfinch so even though it's a week until Advent I still thought it very apt that the first birds I saw on my feeder this wintry morning were two male Bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula).

two red, black, and grey birds on feeder

Current Mood: cold

On my walk this afternoon I was lucky enough to get a passable photo of a Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) before it had disappeared further up the tree. As you can see from its greyish fur and the enormous ear tufts it's already grown its winter coat.

small grey & reddish-brown animal in evergreen tree

Current Mood: grateful

Not far from where I live there's a dry, sunny slope and right now it's completely filled with bright orange Oriental Poppies (Papaver orientale). It's an old garden flower here in southern Sweden and occasionally it seems to thrive in the wild too.

Click to enlarge:

sunny slope filled with large orange flowers

( more photos... )

Current Mood: good

This morning a Jay (Garrulus glandarius) showed up at my bird feeders for the first time ever.

Click to enlarge:

beige-pink, blue, and black & white bird on the ground

Current Mood: impressed

A small flock of Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis) visiting my feeders today and managed to get a pretty good photo of one of them. They're such beautiful birds but I'm grateful they don't visit very often - the rate they consume hemp seeds would soon ruin my finances :-)

Click to enlarge:

brown and black bird with red, white, and yellow markings on bird feeder

Current Mood: relieved

I had a new visitor at my feeders today, a Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes). I haven't seen one of those in at least fifteen years!

Click to enlarge:

black and pale orange bird perched on feeder

Current Mood: surprised

This afternoon a small flock of Bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) visited the maple outside my window and I managed to take this photo sequence of one of the females.

First she was crunching a seed
Click to enlarge:

beige and black bird in a naked tree

( then she digested it... )

Current Mood: pleased

No matter how hard it rains I don't think I've ever seen a bird looking wet before but this Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) that visited one of my feeders today looked distinctly damp!

Click to enlarge:

black and white bird with red markings on bird feeder

( One more photo... )

Current Mood: thoughtful

Butterflies usually move around too much to get good photos of them but this male Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) was nice enough to keep sitting on this flower long enough for me to get several nice photos of him. You can even see his proboscis, both curled up and straightened out.

Click to enlarge pictures:

small golden-brown butterfly on pale-striped flower

( one more picture... )

Current Mood: productive

The parents were circling suspiciously when I stopped and took this photo of three Common Gull chicks (Larus canus). Not that I could have reached them even if I had wanted to, they were high up on a roof, but try telling parents that!

Click to enlarge:

three fuzzy gull chicks on a roof top

Current Mood: relaxed

Warblers are almost impossible to see and even more impossible to photograph, but this afternoon I managed to not only spot, but also to take a couple of photos of, a male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) high up in a birch.

Click to enlarge:

small greyish-beige bird high up among birch branches

( One more photo... )

Current Mood: thoughtful

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