Easter day ended on a high

I spent time on Easter day checking the status on some of the places I normally visit during summer here in Gothenburg. I had two things on my mind for Easter day morning and that was to see if I could find the Eurasian Wren and if the Osprey had arrived. That meant I had to go to the island of Hisingen.

The alarm wasn´t set, but still I woke up with the rising sun. I took a hastily breakfast and grabbed picnic material to have when I got hungry later on. Then, it was off to Hisingen took mainly check three different places and that was Hökällan, Ragnhildsholmen and Torslanda.

It was a clear and crisp morning with a heavy mist around Hökällan. The place didn´t produce anything extra ordinary, but it was nice to see the Western Marsh-Harrier appear out of the fog just 20 meters in front of me before it realized I was there. That was surely a nice start to Easter day and I think I have to check out Hökällan more this year to see what can be done with the Marsh-Harrier as I think they breed around one of the small lakes at Hökällan.

Ragnhildsholmen was a dead end even if I took the picture of the European Hare there. Still it was a nice stop as there were three Common Cranes wandering out in the fields and I could hear a Common Buzzard calling close by.

European Hare Easter day — European Hare 140420

Torslanda produced many more photo opportunities and it was nice to see that the Northern Wheatear had arrived. I got some photos of them, but none that is worth showing here.

The stop at Torslanda was the last for Easter day morning, but I also did a short trip in the evening. I wanted to check out the White-throated Dipper at Säveån and if I had time also see if any warblers had come to the fields of Utby.

The stop at Jonsered for the White-throated Dipper’s was not to be as the parking space was full of cars. Instead, I took the car to a place just outside Jonsered with a small Beech forest. The ground there are covered with Wood anemone, Lesser celandine and other spring flowers. It was a nice setting and I suppose the trees will be full of green leaves in the coming days now that the temperature has hit 20 degrees.

The last stop on Easter day was at the fields of Utby. This was to be a surprise for me as this stop turned out to be the most productive.

I know that there are Eurasian Beaver in Säveån. There is evidence of Beaver activity in many places where the Beaver have taken done trees in different sizes. I have looked for them before, but just witnessed one individual from a distance. This Easter day I spend 45 minutes in the company of one relaxed Beaver that was swimming back and forth stopping to feed once in a while.

This was a great privilege and I will look for them more closely now that I have learned what to look for. They are mainly nocturnal, but they seem to become activity just before the sun sets as you can see in some of my pictures.