At the moment, my head is just so full of lists that it's spinning. I must be suffering from the early onset of old-age forgetfulness because I'm increasingly finding that I really have to write things down. I then promptly lose the scrap of paper and have to start all over, or else weeks later I find these crumpled envelopes in my handbag full of lists of things we need to buy, things to accomplish, long-range plans, boat lists, lists of lists.

Funnily enough, I've also noticed that these lists are written in a mixture of English and Swedish (usually whichever word is shorter). Of course, sometimes I only know the Swedish word for a special piece of boat equipment. And sometimes I even write a half-English, half-Swedish term that only I could possibly understand. What is happening to my language skills?

So on one of these endless lists was "Buy Bruce and Sheila a new cage". The cage they came in was a bit worse for wear when we got it, but I'd never really seen anything much that I liked, so here they are years later with the same cage that I have to keep sticking back together with duct tape all of the time. In a fit of what I thought was genius, I started looking at a Swedish version of ebay called Blocket. I searched in our area for a cage and found one. It was listed at a great price, so I clicked on the link. Why did I look?




Along with the cage comes this gorgeous, sad little guy. The ad said that his mate had recently died and that he really needed to be with other birds, so the owner was reluctantly selling him complete with all of his equipment. I could feel the tears starting to prick the back of my eyes. I so wanted that bird, though I know that Bruce would have other ideas as he's pretty sure that Sheila's his bird, so to speak.

I know I should have stopped then, but it was like passing a car crash when you know you ought not look, but can't help yourself. I couldn't believe how many little birdies needed a home and I angled for a way to convince Lars-Göran that I needed a new twenty nine room mansion to house all of them. He is tougher than me and while he was moved as well by the cockatiels, love birds, budgies, parrots and macaws to be saved, he shut down the computer, told me not to go to that bit again and took me out for a drive instead to Lake Tåkern.




Lake Tåkern is regarded as the foremost bird lake in Northern Europe. As you can see from the map, there are four visitors' areas round the lake with paths and bird watching towers. And this is all but a very short drive from our home!

We first stopped at Hov (pronounced "Hoove"), where we took a short 200 metre walk through the woods to the bird tower. I wasn't really prepared for the sheer scale of the lake - it's enormous at 12 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide. I read on the information board that during the nineteenth century they had tried to drain the lake in order to gain more agricultural land and that the level dropped by several metres between 1842-4. By 1845, the average depth was only 0.8 m and as a result, the reed beds began to spread out, the water meadows became well established and the lake began to attract birds. So really, the epoch of Tåkern as a bird lake is no more than 150 years old.

This was a very well set up spot with picnic tables, paths and ramps that made even the tower accessible for disabled people. And what a view! This area is especially famous for the large numbers of cranes, geese and ducks that stop here during the autumn migration. There were birds everywhere.





We then drove to the southern part of the lake, stopping at the Glänås visitors’ area. Again, we followed the footpath around to the three level bird-watching tower, from where we could see the different types of habitats that Lake Tåkern has to offer. As with the Hov area, it was well provided with picnic tables, boardwalks and ramps to the lower level of the tower and masses of information. We had our lunch here enjoying the sunny day and surrounded by a chorus of birds, buzzing insects, frogs and an occasional moo in the distance.




We saw huge numbers of birds out on the water. I'll write the names in both Swedish and English, partly because it's good for me to learn the names and also because I have readers who speak both languages. In fact, I had to struggle to find the English names of some of these birds as they are wholly unfamiliar to me. There were great colonies of various types of geese - Greylag Geese (grågås), Bean Geese (sädgås), Canada geese (kanadagås) and Barnacle Geese (vitkindad gås). Far away on the northern shore (those white dots in the distance) were huge flocks of Mute Swans (knölsvan). And nearby there were dozens of different species of ducks, all loudly gabbling to each other.




Surrounding the lake were water meadows, framed by the distant hills of Omberg. As in former times, these meadows are maintained by a combination of mowing and grazing. It's a way they have discovered of maintaining the the rich biodiversity of the region. If it were simply left alone, the scrub would eventually take over, obliterating the meadows and many species of sun loving orchids, primroses, genetians and grasses would perish. Today there was a herd of cattle out on the meadow in the sunshine, sloshing through the swampy ground and cutting the grass.




The other thing I noticed was the incredible number of insects around us. I wonder what it is like in summer? There were beetles scurrying around, one or two butterflies and an amazing array of pretty dragonflies everywhere. They covered the benches, sunning themselves happily then buzzing off over to the reeds again.




I read on the information board, that this one was called a "Ruddy Darter" which made me laugh as my father often substituted the work ruddy for the more colourful expletive bloody when he was annoyed. In Swedish, this dragonfly is sensibly called blodröd ängstrollslända. While we ate, a small, golden looking frog hopped over the grass to check us out.




It was quite tiny and literally glittered in the sunshine. I think that it is a marsh frog (sjögroda), though I'm not certain. It was very cute sitting there, then hopping casually away. I feel like I'm living in an episode of Animal Planet.

At this spot, there begins a trail around 2 kilometres long which leads through the reedbeds and up to a smaller birdwatching tower. There are also a couple of hides along the trail and it is an ideal place from which to more closely observe the birds, plants and insects here.

Today, we saw one of my favourite birds close up in the reeds - the elegant heron (häger).




The heron surely must be one of the most attractive wading birds in Sweden. I read that the breeding adults like this one have a plume or tuft at the back of the head, with the juveniles looking similar but lacking this plume. That will be something to look out for next summer when we are out sailing. They are fairly shy birds, so it's usually not possible to get close to them and they tend to both fly and hunt alone, though they seem to nest in fairly large colonies.

Further away in the mudflats were some mute swans (knölsvan).




It's funny that they are called "mute" as they do make a rather nasty hissing sound if approached. They're large birds and very aggressive when breeding, driving other birds away from the area. I love to watch them fly with with their neck extended and regular slow wingbeats making a great whooping sound that is so unmistakable.

Out near the middle of the lake were some of the much loathed Canada geese (kanadagås).




They have quite attractive plumage, but it is a North American interloper, having been introduced by some short sighted individual a few years back. The big problem is that it encroaches on the native geese by competing with them for food, nesting places and other resources. It is also much larger than any of the native geese and in some areas of Sweden, they have reached nuisance levels, with hundreds of them alighting in parks and school grounds, leaving behind huge mounds of droppings.




In autumn, most geese migrate in huge flocks like this one, with each bird flying slightly off centre from the one in front of them in order to benefit from its wake, which in turn makes flying slightly easier. It's quite common apparently to see several of these flocks in the air at one time here on Tåkern, all heading south for winter. I read that in mid October, there can be up to 20,000 Bean Geese alone on the lake! What a sight that must be.




I have no idea what kind of ducks these are flying overhead, but I do admire their neat little feet and elegant lines, even if the wing beats are somewhat frantic and less graceful than the bigger birds. Autumn and winter are excellent times to see many different species of duck on the lake, returning south after their brief but productive northern summer. Sweden experiences quite harsh winters, so most of these birds will continue south to warmer countries, though I have seen that some of them stay here throughout the snowy winter.

But what cheered me most today was seeing these gorgeous birds for the first time.




These are cranes (trana) and are the most spectacular of the wading birds. They make a really unusual, primitive sounding squawk reminiscent of the call made by a B-movie pterodactyl. This quite appropriate in some ways as cranes are thought to be the oldest surviving species of bird on the planet.




It's the wrong season to see it of course, but cranes have a rather spectacular mating dance. The male and female face each other and leap into the air like brolgas, with their wings extended and their feet held forwards. They bow to each other, throw grass into the air and squawk as they dance.




I read that at the end of September and during October, you can come here and see what they call "The Big Lift-off" (det stora lyftet), when thousands of geese leave the lake at dawn heading over to the fields to feed. They say that even the 2,000 cranes take part in this. I'd love to witness such a spectacle, but Lars-Göran drew my attention again to the word gryning (meaning dawn or daybreak). As if we'd be anywhere but tucked up in our warm cosy beds at that hour of the day.

Though if we get that big mansion I can see in the distance, we could install powerful binoculars and see it from our bedroom. Surrounded by every bird I can rescue on Blocket.

Yeah, I know.... dream on!