Slottskogen a green lung in Gothenburg

I brought out the bike yesterday and took a ride to Slottskogen to see if I could find anything of interest. I can take several different routes but I choose to take the one along Göta Älv, the river that run thru Gothenburg. I wanted to see if there was any life there at this time of year. I didn´t expect to see anything of particular interest and it was more or less as expect with only Gulls and Cormorants to be seen.

The route is straightforward. It´s just down to the river and then follow it until you come to Järntorget where you turn left and up onto Linnégatan that ends at Slottskogen. The city was starting to wake up and there were many people out so I had to zigzag to not run over anyone. It is always like that. We have different lanes for pedestrians and cyclists but the pedestrians seems to not care to be over run as they almost always walk straight in the middle of the cycle lane.

When I arrived at Slottskogen I understood that something where to happen there because they were putting up fences around the main road thru Slottskogen. Later during the day when I read the news paper I realized that the start of Midnattsloppet, a 10km running event, where in Slottskogen.

So I now got of my bike and started to walk because of all the people working in the park. The first stop was the small pond in which I took photos of the Little Grebe this spring. The pond was overgrown and I can´t recall seeing the pond in this state before. It might be new or just that I never actually have been there at this time of year. There were thick reed beds around most of the pond but you still had access to water at some places. This is of course good for the small birds that can hide from the public and it gets more difficult to disturb the birds, particularly for the kids.

I watched the pond for awhile without noticing anything of interest. I could see any Grebe just Gulls and Ducks. Soon I realized that a odd sound was coming from the other side of the pond and I wanted to investigate it. To my surprise I discovered that it was a Common Moorhen that was making the sound and it was either the alarm sound or just calling for its chicks.

I put myself behind a couple of trees where I had a small “window” to photo thru. At first it wasn´t productive put at last I got both photos of one chick but also of the adult in its natural habitat.

I wouldn´t say that the Moorhen chick is cute in any way but it is always nice to be able to take photos of the next generation like this.

When I thought I had taken a couple of good pictures I headed down to the main pond. There were probably 30-40 ducks there and a couple of Geese’s. My hope was to find the Garganey that had been reported here. I have never seen one before so I wasn´t that sure of finding it, especially if it’s a female. I searched the water for a time but couldn´t see the bird.

Instead a lady appeared and she had some old bread for the Ducks. This always makes for a show so I sat down to see what happened. Soon there where birds all around here and I started to take photos of a Jackdaw that was strutting along on his/her own. I like the Jackdaws because they are intelligent birds that seem to outwit many people. I remember when I saw how one was collecting dead insects from the front of cars at a public parking space.

I also realized that I had House Sparrows all around me. At first they seemed to be interested in what the lady had as free food but they turned it down and started to search for food in the wet grass. I took this photo then.

I like this so I have put it up in my Bird Portfolio. The House Sparrow is resident here in Sweden and I have a hedge where I live which a group always seem to make their own at winter time. What I like about the photo is the low angle, that makes the background soft, but also that I can´t see all of the bird. The photo has a good sharpness and they eye is in focus but it is the little green seed, that is what I think it is, in the beak that makes the photo. Without it the photo would have been just another typical House Sparrow photo.

Photo Gallery: Slottskogen a green lung in Gothenburg