Närsholmen, Naturreservat

One of Gotland's best bird locations, an area with rich, grazing flora and a distinctive landscape. There are many reasons why you simply must visit Närsholmen!

Närsholmen is a low-lying, flat peninsula that is largely made up of embankments of beach gravel. The vegetation is strongly characterized by the fact that the area has long been used as pasture, and large parts of Närsholmen have the character of a "one-savanna" with tall, sparsely standing junipers. On the southern part of the peninsula there are some large groves of planted pine trees, and adjacent to the former strait between Närsholmen and the Gotland mainland there is a small area of deciduous forest.

The list of unusual or otherwise interesting plants on Närsholmen is long. Here is a selection: gravel weed, east coast heirloom, bird heirloom, lesser celandine, cuckoo flower and Adam and Eve. On the southern part of Närsholmen is Gotland's only known site for field bindweed, a pea plant that flowers in early summer.

Närsholmen's well-grazed coastal meadows are home to a rich bird life for much of the year. Breeding birds include lapwing, oystercatcher, redshank, greater sandpiper, curlew, avocet, herring gull and sandwich tern. In spring and autumn, large flocks of barnacle geese and many different species of waders rest on the shallow shores of Närsholmen. In winter, there are often large flocks of shelducks, as well as a large number of common scoters in the bays north and south of Närsholmen.