Lake Hornborga is one of Europe’s most important bird lakes. Every spring, the thousands of dancing cranes attract visitors to the wetlands between Skövde, Skara and Falköping.

The best-known visitor site at Lake Hornborga is Trandansen at the south end of the lake. The first flocks of cranes come here as early as the middle of March. After that you can usually see thousands of cranes – every day – right until the end of April. They then fly on northwards to their nesting grounds. The largest numbers of cranes are usually here in the beginning of April – and the record is over 26,000.

Eating and dancing

The cranes come to the fields at Trandansen at sunrise. They then eat and dance on the fields all day, at sunset flying back to their sleeping places on shallow water in the lake. Sometimes they come really close to the visitors at Trandansen – just 30-40 m away.

During the dance, the birds leap high into the air, bowing to and circling each other. It is impossible to give a certain hour or time of day when the dancing will begin, but it is practically certain that it will begin.

Information and refreshments

At Trandansen there is plenty of parking, and excellent viewing points, an information building with a crane exhibition, tourist information, souvenir sales and a simple refreshment room. Sometimes at the weekends there are also knowledgeable bird wardens on site to answer questions about birdlife at Lake Hornborga.

Naturally, you can see birds other than cranes. In spring there are also large numbers of geese, whooper swans, ducks and many other interesting bird species.