Hambrar, Naturreservat

Hambrar Nature Reserve is located just over a kilometer east of Ala church. Large parts of the reserve consist of old grazing coniferous mixed forest and wetlands. Here you can meet unusual butterflies such as the fool's grass butterfly and the violet blue butterfly. You can also find many rare fungi.

The forest has plenty of dead wood, large old trees, swamp forest and wetlands. This mix of habitats forms a mosaic, which is the basis of the area's biodiversity

The forest is dominated by pine with some spruce. Parts of the forest are overgrown with juniper or bramble and with a grassy field layer with elements of various herbs. In the wetlands, the vegetation is dominated by chickweed, creeping willow and bluebell. In between the tussocks grow herbs such as bloodroot, meadowsweet, meadowsweet, hay flower, spurge and marsh marigold.

The reserve is home to a number of rare fungi that grow with spruce and pine, such as the bull spindle, spruce root spindle and egg spindle. Some of the older pine trees in the area are home to the pine thistle. The cat-footed lichen is abundant in places and colors the spruce bark white. This species indicates that the area has been covered with spruce for a long time and that the humidity has been constantly high.

Up in the tall spruces and pines, it is not unusual to see Sweden's smallest bird, the kingfisher. The black tit, tree creeper and sparrowhawk are also regularly seen. There are also crossbills in the area, and if you are observant and lucky you can see and hear them as they move between the tree crowns in search of food.

Hambrar was previously managed as a Gotland "farmer's forest", which meant that the forest was used for grazing the farm animals and the trees for firewood and timber (picking). In the reserve there are therefore several bryas (water holes) that hold water all or much of the year. In the south-western part of the reserve there is a sojde (tar pit), which indicates that the area was exploited for stumps and wood to produce tar.

Take a packed lunch and follow the path into the nature reserve. After just under a kilometer's walk there is a shelter to rest at.