Talk: Summertime in Sweden, a Smorgasbord of Swedish Wildlife by Andy Daw

4 October 2022 at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, Queen Square, Bath

Andy opened the talk with an overview of Sweden, comparing it to the UK.

Sweden has a land area of just over twice that of the UK. With a population of around 10m (2018) compared to 70m (2018) in the UK it is a sparsely populated country. Malmö at the far southern end of Sweden is at roughly the same latitude as Edinburgh and Stockholm at roughly the same latitude as Lerwick in Shetland. Kiruna in the far North is within the Arctic Circle. Despite this southern Sweden has a similar summertime climate to southern Britain.

Sweden is split into three major biotypes.  Norrland in the upper half, is Alpine birch zone, bare mountain, tundra and high fells. Svealand, the central area, is the southern coniferous zone with some deciduous areas. Götaland, in the far south, is mostly deciduous and farmland.

Nature reserves cover nearly 10 per cent of the land area and include 36 Eco parks and 26 National Parks. There are many accompanying Naturums with the Eco and National parks. Naturums are like visitor information centres for wildlife.

Andy then gave an overview of the wildlife to be found in Sweden compared to the UK. There are nearly twice as many species of Butterflies (111 vs 58), including some northern specialities, 64 species of dragonfly (compared to 46 in the UK) and 84 species of mammal compared to 100 in the UK. But this does include some iconic species like Elk (Moose), Reindeer, Wolf, Lynx and Brown Bear. There are 508 species of bird compared to 600 on the UK list.

Andy visited Sweden 6 times between 2009 and 2018, covering many places. He has yet to visit the far north.

The remainder of Andy’s talk was about his honeymoon holiday taken in 2017. The trip was an organised holiday for Butterflies and Dragonflies by The Travelling Naturalist.

The holiday was lead by Daniel Green, mainly a birder, but also an all-round naturalist. The first night was at Öregrund, on the east coast, and the remainder of the holiday at Satra Brun near Västerås.
Andy took us through the holiday with pictures of the many butterflies, dragonflies, plants and other wildlife.

Highlights of the show included:
Butterflies
Clouded Apollo (one of the rarest butterflies in Sweden), Large Wall, Moorland Clouded Yellow, Cranberry Blue, Cranberry Fritillary, Poplar Admiral, Swallowtail, Scarce Fritillary, Scarce Heath, False Heath Fritillary, Purple-edged Copper, Black-veined White, Lesser Marbled Fritillary, Northern Chequered Skipper and High Brown Fritillary. A total of 46 species were seen on the holiday.

Dragonflies
Downy Emerald, Arctic Bluet, Ruby Whiteface, Golden-ringed Dragonfly, Lillypad Whiteface and Yellow Spotted Emerald

Flowers
Greater Butterfly Orchid, Lesser Butterfly Orchid, Cloudberry, Common Clubtail and Pigmy Damselfly

Birds
Crane, Cuckoo, Great Grey Owl, Fieldfare nest and Red-backed Shrike

Mammals
Beaver, Moose and Red Squirrel

Others
Adder, Raft Spider and slow worm