It often pays to take the road not taken

August 3, 2014

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.

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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: DSC07147An Arctic Tern obliges me by sitting still.  Thanks buddy!

DSC07160 Mute Swan family on Lake Roxen

DSC07166 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

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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.

DSC07180 I love the sound of gravel beneath my bike tires.

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DSC07185 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. IMG_6050 Pic Courtesy:

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

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

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I saw a Tortoiseshell butterflyDSC07200

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

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

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And this Northern Lapwing foraging for food.

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

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concentrates on a shot while I shoot the shooter.

DSC07189 My (t)rusty old mountain bike. It rattles and squeaks, but is a now a completely reliable beast and my preferred bike for any trip involving bumpy terrain. </lj-cut>