Willow warbler ?

 There are a number of birds that are difficult to identify from a distance, and this is one of them. I guess it is a willow warbler. In a few hours time, I hope someone in a Facebook group of bird experts will tell me!

Mushrooms

 It has been very dry in Svångemåla most of this summer, but the last four days it has rained a lot, almost 70 mm. That has made the mushrooms happy, and they are coming up everywhere!

I took this picture when it was still raining a little, making the colours very clear and beautiful. I don't think they are eatable and left it for the wild pigs to enjoy.

 

August

The days are getting shorter, and it is raining more often than before this summer. It is still relatively warm, but you can feel that it will not be long before autumn is here. The darkness in the forest makes it difficult to take pictures and when the camera's autofocus is trying its best to get me a sharp photo, it often misses the bird or whatever I am trying to take a picture of, and instead I end up with a perfectly sharp twig with a blurred bird behind it. Frustrating but also part of the fun :) This time I was, however, lucky and saw, that what first appeared to be just a dark spot, was in fact the back of a tree creeper looking at me over its wing ! 

The Nuthatch

 The nuthatch that yesterday was looking for food in a birch was today busy hiding nuts in an old aspen tree. 

Nuthatch

 My late father's favourite bird was the nuthatch. He loved to see them around the bird feeder in the winter and when they moved up and down tree trunks. Right now they are all over the place looking for food in the birches and even in an abandoned birdhouse :)

Willow warbler

 The willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) is a very common and widespread bird, and I am a bit surprised that I do not see them more often than I do. Right now there are, however, a group of four young ones who are flying around our house and seem to practise how to fly as fast and close together as possible. This particular fellow sat on our lawn, enjoying the sunset.

Young and old

The never ending circle of new and old is very visible now. The young birds are everywhere like this little Black Bird and below is the old and dying Purple coneflower. The latter is still attracting butterflies, and we have decided to plant a few more of this beautiful flower. 

The little bird flew up just in front of me and was so close that it was difficult to get a proper focus. If you click on the picture you can see that the head is very sharp, but its tail is out of focus. 

 

End of summer

 The end of summer is coming closer and nature is slowly changing. The birds are not as many and not as active as two months ago and although the trees are still green, one can notice that they are changing. Many of us miss the birds singing and I was therefore happy when a flycatcher sat down close to our veranda and started to sing. 

I was even happier when a wood warbler landed in a rowan tree since it is the first time (!) I have seen this bird in Svångemåla.

Finally a common redstart joined the other two and suddenly it felt like spring again !

The butterflies are everywhere and some are really colorful like this one, the red admiral or red admirable.