Lillsjön () is a small, former

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

Norra Djurgården NORRA or Norra may refer to: * Nordic Regional Airlines, a Finnish airline operating on behalf of, and formerly majority-owned by, Finnair * National Off-Road Racing Association The National Off-Road Racing Association (usually abbreviated NORRA) i ...

, a semi-rural area in north-eastern central

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, forming part of the

Royal National City Park The Royal National City Park () is a national urban park, established by the Swedish Parliament in 1995, and located in the municipalities of Stockholm, Solna and Lidingö in Sweden. 1/ km²2/ Population per km² Gallery Some places in th ...

. Today transformed into a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

, it is often mentioned as one of the six lakes in the area, the other being: Laduviken, Uggleviken,

Isbladskärret Isbladskärret is a small lake on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. The lake is much appreciated among bird-watchers, and, being part of the Royal National City Park, also carefully monitored by several organizations, including ...

, Lappkärret, and Spegeldammen. Lillsjön used to be connected to other lakes in the area through narrow straits. Through a project sponsored by the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

, water was pumped into the small basin reinforced by new embankments.

Reed Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * Re ...

was also burnt away, and the former lake thus transformed into a shore meadow attracting many birds, starting with

northern lapwing The northern lapwing (''Vanellus vanellus''), also known as the peewit or pewit, tuit or tewit, green plover, or (in Ireland and Great Britain) pyewipe or just lapwing, is a bird in the lapwing subfamily. It is common through temperate Palearcti ...

s in March, followed by

common snipe The common snipe (''Gallinago gallinago'') is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. Distribution and habitat The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic. In the north, the distribution li ...

s later in spring. In autumn, many birds rest here on their way south, such as wood sandpipers,

common redshank The common redshank or simply redshank (''Tringa totanus'') is a Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae. Taxonomy The common redshank was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of hi ...

s, greenshanks, and ruffs. Upptäck A striking feature at Lillsjön are the Highland cattle residing there from May to October. Not only do they attract many Stockholmers of all ages, they also affect the local fauna as they eat reed and tufted hair-grass, thus preventing these species from taking over the area – and thereby allowing space to flowers such as cowslips and

bitter vetch Bitter vetch is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * ''Vicia ervilia'', called bitter vetch or ervil, an ancient grain legume crop of the Mediterranean region. *''Vicia orobus ''Vicia orobus'' is a species of Fabaceae, leguminous ...

, as well as birds and insects attracted by water.

Notes

References

* Geography of Stockholm Former lakes of Europe Lakes of Stockholm County Lakes in Djurgården {{Stockholm-geo-stub

See also

Notes

References