For the first time in my life, I have witnessed the thousands and thousands of migrating cranes at Lake Hornborga. My mom grew up there, didn’t necessarily visit too often, but yet we never went there to witness this massive migration event.

Every day they are counting the cranes flying in to the feeding and eating grounds and this day, 21900 cranes decided to join us, almost at the peak of the season. They were fairly spread out so it wasn’t as packed and extreme as I had imagine, but the noise they all made definitely made up for it.

Lots of other birds are gathering here at the same time and people come from all over just to birdwatch. I did really enjoy it, just watching them dance.

I might have gotten this history wrong, but I think the reason they stop here every year is because back in the day, there was something with distilleries and their potato fields. As well as a natural break when flying from southern Europe. Even after the distilleries closed down, they continued to plant potatoes for the cranes until it just wasn’t worth it anymore. Now, they are being fed locally grown grain instead, and every night when the cranes fly out to the lake to sleep, humans are spreading grain on the fields for the cranes to eat when they get back in the morning. 150 ton of grain are used each year to feed them. Insane!

This picture up above is of a crane just about to land. They are so graceful when they are streamlined midflight but as they are just about to land, the release their legs as the wheels of an airplane and they just dangle there for a bit. It looks hilarious.

It was a great day with both of our mothers and Mikael’s grandmother to witness a truly amazing Swedish nature phenomena.