The first cranes have been spotted here in Northern Dalarna, and I'm now waiting for them here in Särna. Just off the town a narrow strip of land stretches into the frozen lake, towards an area where the water is freeing itself sooner than elsewhere. There, some pairs of cranes regularly stop every year right in the middle of April, before to scatter into the surrounding marshes to breed.
I thought the whooper swans were the sign of spring, and as a matter of fact they are the first birds to return from the winter migration. Nevertheless, I discovered that in Sweden that role is taken by cranes, which are acting as local "swallows" (the swallows will come too, but in late May), and are also considered to bring good luck, to the point that the first spring observation is usually a news on local media.
The picture here has been taken last week at Lake Hornborga in southern Sweden, where every year the cranes make a stop over during their trip to north: along three weeks up to 18,000 cranes stop to rest and feed, before the final leap to the nesting quarters. The sight is extraordinary for the birds amount and confidence along with the passion and respect from thousands of people who go watching them: that took a chapter in my last book, and will be the subject of a future portfolio on Exuvia.
I went back there for a couple of days, this as almost every year in a sort of sentimental pilgrimage; each time it's fascinating to think that I'll meet later here in Särna some among the cranes I see there. Yet I'll never know which ones they are.