The Dragonflies at Svankällan

I found a document about an inventory of Dragonflies that had been done here in Gothenburg. That stirred my mind as I really like to photo these hunting insects. That is why now have set a goal for the summer and that is to record at least eight different types of Dragonflies.

The best area for Dragonflies in Gothenburg, if I look at the inventory, is a wetland area, Svankällan, that actually is very accessible for me as it is a small detour when I go home from work. Fifteen different types of Dragonflies were spotted at Svankällan during the inventory that was made during the summer period 2011.

Tonight was my first visit at Svankällan. It was easy to find even if the parking space was situated in a small villa community. I had done a quick check before I left home and knew there should be a big bird tower, but also a small hide that potentially could give me good photo opportunities.

The bird tower was the first thing I wanted to check out.

Svankällan was really serene with an open wetland and walking paths along both sides of it. The bird tower was huge with two floors and here I stopped to get a good overlook of the wetland. I didn´t stay long because I was here for Dragonflies, that was my primary subject for the evening.

I found the Dragonflies in the northwestern part of Svankällan where they flew over a small rectangular pond defending their turf from other Dragonflies. So now it was game on.

If you haven´t tried to photo these agile insects before then you will find it really frustrating. Most often you’ll just give up after a time, but that isn´t me. You really have to be patient, use slow movement when you raise the camera and you need luck.

Most of the time the Dragonflies just sat on the ground getting warm from both the sun and the heat radiating from the warm ground. Every single picture I took with them on the ground is now in the bin. Really boring pictures, but sometimes I take that kind of picturesbecause they can help me identifying the species.

I like both pictures of the Dragonflies, but the picture of the White-faced Darter is the first for me and therefore it is a little bit more special.

White-faced Darter 130611

The picture of the Four-spotted Chaser is better with the green background that is if I just think about the picture.

I also tried the hide, but it was really not built with photography in mind. Still it produced a smashing picture of a White Wagtail that I really like. It is probably the best White Wagtail picture so far this year.

I think it was a good first outing at Svankällan. I managed to get 25% of the Dragonflies and I saw at least two other types. I will surely stop here many times on the road home from work to see if I can add more Dragonflies to the list and maybe I’ll get a chance to photo the Grey Heron I saw there. So until next them enjoy these three pictures.