Butterflies, Moths and Dragonflies
Scarce Fritillaries and Clouded Apollo, Mid – Late June
In this splendid time of uprising Nordic summer, with nights as short as merely an hour of twilight, a good collection of unique Scandinavian Butterflies are on the menue. This is in fact the best time to see
Poplar Admiral, Baltic Grayling, Scarce Fritillary, Friggas Fritillary and many more.
We visit a handful of central Sweden´s richest butterfly-sites without any longer drives. A trip to the Baltic coast and the island Gräsö gives
Glanville Fritillary and on the mainland not far away, we find
Clouded Apollos.
This time of the year is also the best for several of Scandinavia´s Dragonfly specialities, such as
Yellow-spotted,
Lilypad and
Ruby Whiteface, Common Clubtail, Small Pincertail and the very rare and tiny
Pygmy Damselfly or Sedgling (
Nehalennia speciosa).
Day 1
Arrival at Västerås airport. We go directly to nearby island Nature reserve Ängsö, where we enjoy a picknick in a deciduous, semiopen landscape with meadows and wetlands and a parklike setting near an old castle.
We explore a couple of different parts of this lovely island by foot, looking for
Poplar Admirals and dragonflies like
Yellow-spotted Whiteface (
Leucorrhinia pectoralis) and
Small Pincertail (
Onychogomphus forcipatus).
One of several charismatic dayflying Moths to be seen on the trip is locally common here; the small, but beautiful
Purple-barred Yellow (
Lythria rotaria).
Pearly Heath,
Lesser Marbled– and
Heath Fritillaries are only some examples of the Butterflies at hand.
Night in the Black River Valley.
Day 2
Färna ekopark is probably the best of all nearby areas to see large and beautiful
Poplar Admirals. We spend the morning part of the day here, and then move on to Butterfly reserve Munkhyttan, where a lot of conservation and management effort has been made to conserve healthy populations of
Scarce–, Marsh– and
False Heath Fritillaries.
Northern Chequered Skipper, Common Swallowtail, Cranberry Blues are also abundant in the area. If the
Wood Whites are still on their wings we try to identify
Real´s Wood White among them.
Common Goldenring, Beautiful Demoiselle and
Downy Emerald (
Corduelis aenea) are among the dragonflies to be seen here.
Night in the Black River Valley.
Day 3
Friggas Fritillary is the first target species of todays excursion going northwards.
The site is a very nice little bog lake surrounded by pineforest and also a good site for species like
Moorland Clouded Yellow, Bog–, and
Cranberry Fritillary, Large Heath and
Baltic Grayling, and dragonflies like
Ruby Whiteface, (
Leucorrhinia rubicunda) and
Small Whiteface (
Leucorrhinia dubia)
We continue northwards to look for
Scarce Heath and if time permits we spend search for elusive
Northern Grizzled Skippers on the myres in the pineforest.
Night back in the Black River Valley.
For those interested we do a Moth-night one or two of these nights, selecting an interesting site where a good selection of Moths are likely to appear.
Northern Oak Eggar, Pine–, Poplar– or
Elephant Hawk Moth, White Prominent, Scarce Hook-tip and colourful and unique Scandinavian
”Peat-bog Carpet” (
Arichanna melanaria) are just a couple of examples on what can be found. (Have a look at this list of species from previous Moth-nights in the area:
link to pdf.)
Day 4
”The Butterfly road” near the Baltic coast is 2 hours drive away but definitely worthwhile visiting. Here we find a good selection of rare Butterfly species, like
Large Grizzled Skipper, Black-veined White, Scarce Copper, up to 10 species of Blues including
Mazarine,
Idas and
Amanda´s Blue,
Silvery–, Geranium– and
Mountain Argus. Among dayflying Moths
Broad-bordered Bee Hawkmoth is one of the most charismatic ones.
In the same area we visit the only known site for one of Europe´s rarest dragonflies, the
Pygmy Damselfly or Sedgling (
Nehalennia spceiosa). The site is also good for
Common Clubtail (
Gompus vulgatissimus) and
Yellow-spotted Emeralds (
Somatochlora flavomaculata) can be seen at the Butterfly road.
Among the ”flying blue toothpics” – the Damselflies we should identify Scandinavian exclusivities like
Dark Bluet (
Coenagrion armatum) and
Spearhead Bluet (
Coenagrion hastulatum) among more common Blue Featherlegs (
Platycnemis pennipes) and Common Bluetails (
Ishnura elegans).
Night in small, picturesque coastal town Öregrund.
Day 5
Just across Öregrund lies the island Gräsö in the Baltic Sea and after a lovely hotel breakfast we just take the five-minute ferry out to the island, to enjoy
Glanville Fritillaries and
Purple-edged Coppers. If we´re lucky
Ladyslipper Orchids might still be in bloom.
A coffe-break at a café by a lighthouse on the coast is well-earned after some hours of Butterflying.
Back on the mainland we spend time with
Clouded Apollos on one of their stronghold sites in the country.
Night in Roslagen.
Day 6
A couple of good Dragonfly species still remains to see and they are within reach around Stockholm. We focus on
Lilypad Whiteface (
Leucorrhinia caudalis) and might be additionally exposed to
Blue/Scarce Chaser (
Libellula fulva),
Small pincertail and
Common Goldenrings (
Cordulegaster boltonii).
Night back in the Black River Valley.
Day 7
The last day we dedicate to what´s on the doorstep, which is a lot of lovely nature in the Black River Valley, including open wetlands, floodplains and pine forests with bogs and many lakes. If there´s anything we would like to see again or if there are species left to see, we have the possibility to see
Poplar Admiral, Purple-edged Copper, Marsh Fritillary and among Dragonflies
Common Clubtail, Broad-bodied Chaser (
Libellula depressa) and
Eurasian Baskettail (
Ephiteca bimaculata) all fly nearby.
The journey is a collaboration between
BirdSafarisweden and
Karlmark Travel. (Karlmark Travels holds the travel
warranty insurance that covers this trip)