Christine's walking & birds blog

Sweden has experienced the same high temperatures this year as England, with drought and numerous forest fires bringing problems that almost outweigh the joy of having a beautiful golden summer. We came in for the cooler, thundery end of it all when we visited for Greger's brother-and-wife's joint 70th birthday party.

At the junction of the farmhouse drive and the road, a family of red-backed shrikes hunted in both a crop and a field of stubble, and perched in between forays on the seed-heads of reedmace that grew along the ditch.


This could be a juvenile - or the adult female. Not sure.


Whereas this is more likely to be a juvenile bird.



Other small birds feeding in the same area and flying up into trees when flushed by passing cars included this tree pipit - not the most dignified of shots. Greger says I've been "up-skirting".


Several fritillaries along an overgrown track were wary, although after a while they settled down and were more approachable; but I couldn't tell from the upperwing whether this was one I'd seen before.


When I finally saw the stunning underwing, I was sure this was a new fritillary for me. But which one?


It's a Queen of Spain Fritillary (I don't generally use initial caps but such a grand name seems to require them) - a migratory butterfly that's fairly common throughout Europe apparently, but rare in the UK.

Other notable birds: migrating cranes, dropping down to rest and forage on the fields (farmers get compensation) and filling the air with their wild, exuberant calls; a marsh harrier cruising silently over; tree sparrows in a spruce hedge - although house sparrows seem to have ousted them from the farm buildings; swifts, house martins, swallows; and, returning from a trip north to visit a friend of Greger's, half a dozen black-throated divers on a lake in a post-breeding social group, not far from the road.