Macswede
Macswede
The wife and I travelled to Hornborgasjön at the weekend to see the Crane Dance – 10,000 plus birds gather there before dispersing to breeding grounds in various part of Sweden. It was our first time. I think Common Cranes have gathered there for hundreds of years – they ate potatoes in the farmers’ fields initially – but not in the kind of numbers they do today. It’s become a major tourist attraction and the birds are well-fed and arrive in ever-increasing numbers. We amused ourselves by counting cranes on the way (it’s a four hour trip from Stockholm) and were pleased to have seen 11 but when we arrived there were 12,000 plus, an all-time record, and the following day there were well over 13,000, another all-time record. The birds are counted at dusk and the numbers displayed on an impressive-looking scoreboard outside the information centre. I heard a surprising number of visitors mention the record and some were clearly proud to have witnessed it. We didn’t see much dancing from the cranes; there was more squabbling over who should stand on which square metre of grass than displaying, but it was an amazing event nonetheless.
I had no idea there was such an interest in birds in Sweden. There were lots of cranes but they were outnumbered many times over by their admirers. Some came like us in private cars and the car parks were packed but coach load after coach load of tourists arrived throughout our 2-day visit, some from abroad. Most seemed to have managed to bring along binoculars of some kind or other and the majority had point and shoot digital camera but there were also an awful lot of scopes on tripods and plenty of advanced photographic equipment
It was a bit different from our normal birding experiences and I’ll never again joke that there were more birders than birds at my local patch but we had a great time all the same. On Sunday, our second day, we drove to some other sites around the lake, acting on information we received at the information centre. Apart from the cranes the lake boasts all five species of grebe found in Sweden buy we only managed 2. It was too early for the Slavonian Grebes and no one mentioned Little Grebes but with a bit of effort we saw several Red-necked Grebes, which was great as I’d only ever previously seen 1 several years ago. Otherwise we saw no rarities but we did see our first White Wagtails, Reed Buntings, Pintail and Widgeons (lots) of the year. We were disappointed not to find Black-necked Grebes which had been seen the previous day at Naturum, a visitors’ centre with crowded hides and a large observation tower that was almost as big a tourist attraction as the Crane Dance.
I can thoroughly recommend the Common Cranes at Hornborgasjön to anyone who wishes to practise flight shots. They are large birds, fly relatively slowly and generally have predictable flights paths, unlike say Lapwings which are a nightmare to capture. If you tire of cranes (unlikely as they are very beautiful birds) the Whooper and Mute Swans and Greylag Geese are also very obliging.
I had no idea there was such an interest in birds in Sweden. There were lots of cranes but they were outnumbered many times over by their admirers. Some came like us in private cars and the car parks were packed but coach load after coach load of tourists arrived throughout our 2-day visit, some from abroad. Most seemed to have managed to bring along binoculars of some kind or other and the majority had point and shoot digital camera but there were also an awful lot of scopes on tripods and plenty of advanced photographic equipment
It was a bit different from our normal birding experiences and I’ll never again joke that there were more birders than birds at my local patch but we had a great time all the same. On Sunday, our second day, we drove to some other sites around the lake, acting on information we received at the information centre. Apart from the cranes the lake boasts all five species of grebe found in Sweden buy we only managed 2. It was too early for the Slavonian Grebes and no one mentioned Little Grebes but with a bit of effort we saw several Red-necked Grebes, which was great as I’d only ever previously seen 1 several years ago. Otherwise we saw no rarities but we did see our first White Wagtails, Reed Buntings, Pintail and Widgeons (lots) of the year. We were disappointed not to find Black-necked Grebes which had been seen the previous day at Naturum, a visitors’ centre with crowded hides and a large observation tower that was almost as big a tourist attraction as the Crane Dance.
I can thoroughly recommend the Common Cranes at Hornborgasjön to anyone who wishes to practise flight shots. They are large birds, fly relatively slowly and generally have predictable flights paths, unlike say Lapwings which are a nightmare to capture. If you tire of cranes (unlikely as they are very beautiful birds) the Whooper and Mute Swans and Greylag Geese are also very obliging.
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