Our new home: Cranes 2009 in our own 'garden'

Cranes 2009

For many years we have been to the Hornborgasjön in Sweden to watch cranes:

This year, 2009 there were an alltime high number of visitors, 18.500 in one day!
Last record was only 12.900 set last year.

Below you can see how they left after April 1st, and then you will se something extraordinary....

April	Hornb.sj.	Here
1	18500
2	15800
3	15100
4	15600
5	13200
6	15500
7	13000
8	11200
9	10400
10	10900
11	8300
12	5200	6
13	4000	6
14	3300	6
15	3700	8
16	2400	8
17	780	6
18	1200	5
19	1200	5
20	1200	7
21		8
22	1100	8
23		8
May
4		3
5		3

The Cranes suddenly dropped down here at our paradise:

First, there were 6 of them, but surprisingly they not just left that day.....

...they stayed till the next day, and then they even increased in number - now 8 cranes in the field.

How many hours spent watching them during the days they spent here
I don't want to think of, but a thrilling experience to us living here.

On the 17th of April, we heard a big noise, and there was one of the cranes in the air.
It flew around in big circles, opposite of clockwise from down here,
and all the time either that one was calling for the others to come,
or the others didn't want him (her) to fly away.
However, it flew higher and higher into the air,
and after a while, way up, ut stopped using its wings, and only drifted around.
But still it was increasing its height, so believe it found a warm upstream.

Just before we lost sight of it, it suddenly broke out of the circle
and flew strictly northward, and kept that direction untill we lost sight of it.
Next day they were only 5.

Now we start wondering if they will come back next year?
May be we can start competing with Hornborgasjön in having the highest number visiting???
Well, it's not forbidden to dream, or.......

This was the area where the cranes stayed. Also 4 swans and two Canada-geese joined now and then
Why they came so many, and stayed so long we can just guess.
We know there were potatoes left over (1) and that some grain also were to be found (2),
but that still doesn't explain why they stayed so long.

Surprisingly three of them showed up again on May 4th, and were back again the next day.
Are those the same as before, or new ones that are on their way north?