Kloster, Naturreservat

Kloster is a paradise for birds and birdwatchers. The vast wetlands and aspen forests teem with life in the spring and fall. The reserve’s old, decaying aspen trees provide a thriving habitat for lichens, beetles, and wood-decay fungi. East of the bird tower, cows graze in the fields. Be sure to visit the restored English Park at Kloster Manor.
Photo: Dalarna County Administrative Board

Enjoy birds and scenery

Here you can see the beautiful beach meadows at the mouth of the Klosterån River with grazing cows. Where the dry land transitions into wetter meadows, sedge belts, and pools of water with floating-leaf plants, most of the birds are found. It is the birds that most people come here to see.

Lake Flinesjön is a resting place for birds

Lake Flinesjön is one of Dalarna’s most bird-rich lakes. Birdlife is at its peak in spring and fall. The birds are on their way north in the summer, to richer lands, or south in the fall to warmer latitudes. At that time, the shore meadows are visited by large flocks of ducks, geese, and waders. During this period, it’s worth keeping an eye out for whooper swans, cranes, wigeons, teals, lapwings, snipes, and sandpipers. It is not uncommon to see birds of prey such as ospreys, marsh harriers, bald eagles, and kestrels hunting over the open wetlands.

It’s not just birds you can see here

Enjoy the floating islands of flowering water clover, or the shifting colors of the reed, bulrush, and horsetail belts along the shore. Among the aspens, you might spot the large aspen butterfly. Perhaps easier is to study one of the world’s richest occurrences of the very rare beach lichen. The gray-blue lichen grows at the bottom of the aspen trunks out at Rankholmen. There is also a rich bird life among the aspens. No fewer than six species of woodpeckers have been spotted here.

English Park

At Klosters Manor, just outside the nature reserve, there is a restored English park. Here you can walk a gravel path through the Klosterån ravine and take a detour into the nature reserve. At the manor there is also a small museum that tells the story of the area’s long industrial history.