very much liked the spot on the banks of Lake Roxen that'd we'd biked to earlier as it offered her the prospect of clicking pics of a few water birds that frequented the area.  I'd promised her that we'd go there again, so off we went again.  However, I decided to take a slightly different route to see if we could see something new and interesting, and it paid off richly, giving us a few photo ops that we'd never anticipated.  The first deviation from our previous route took us through a bunch of row houses with lovely gardens filled with flowers of many different hues.

We reached Roxen in a little while where Deepa was overjoyed to catch sight of Arctic Terns and a family of Mute Swans.  I tried my best to look like a serious birder/photographer while attempting to aim in the directions Deepa was pointing out.  There were the best I could come back with: An Arctic Tern obliges me by sitting still.  Thanks buddy!

Mute Swan family on Lake Roxen

A Great Crested Grebe.  This guy kept diving under and staying down for extended periods of time before surfacing in a completely different place.  It took me a bunch of attempts to get him while I could!

We found a second pier too, which provided a nice place to view the birds

We were happy with the day's birding, but chose to take a different route back.  It was a route I'd biked on my way to Motala on one of my training rides, but I'd not really explored it much.  In any case, it had been a more scenic ride, so we decided to take it.

I love the sound of gravel beneath my bike tires.

A lovely old barn.

We then chanced upon this sign, indicating a nature reserve.  It seemed promising, but since Deepa was tiring, I decided to scout ahead and come back for her, if it didn't mean too much more biking. Pic Courtesy:

The place was actually quite close by and the signboards were promising, so off we went, to the Svartåmynningen Nature Reserve.

It actually was quite a place and is also considered a wetland of international importance.

I saw a Tortoiseshell butterfly

and a bunch of bees to practice my macro photography skills on!

I also saw a group of birds which included Greylag Geese and Black-headed Gulls.

And this Northern Lapwing foraging for food.

We got back home with a lot of nice pictures and memories.