Get to know the Cranes at Lake Hornborga. Where do they spend the winter and what do they like to eat? Does the Crane live in pairs all the life? Find out some more about the Cranes at Lake Hornborga and how they count all the Cranes that you see here.
In the late 19th Century, large flocks of cranes gathered every spring in the fields around Stora Bjurum and Dagsnäs. Large quantities of potatoes were grown here to make brännvin, the Swedish eau-de-vie. Potatoes are irresistible to cranes. But not new potatoes! Potatoes must have wintered in the frozen earth, which makes them full of sugars and energy-rich. The distilleries here closed down in the 1960s and 70s, and the potatoes disappeared with them. Today, the cranes are fed instead on corn, which is provided by the regional authorities that manage the nature reserve.
Bed and breakfast
When frozen potatoes and corn are o the menu, cranes will get by on almost anything, from vegetation and seeds to insects, frogs and fish. There’s no shortage of these in the wetlands around Lake Hornborgasjön. And the Lake is just the place for cranes that want to stand out in the water to sleep.