Last weekend we left the lake house quite late in the evening. When we drove by some fields, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. There were tens of whooper swans! Those are the national birds of Finland.

During spring time when the birds return from the south they gather to the fields to rest and to eat. I had never before seen so many of whooper swans in one place!

I counted there must have been around 50 swans altogether. Usually you see these only in pairs, swimming at a lake. The birds stay together for a lifetime once they have chosen their significant other, and they return to the same place to nest. In Finnish the name is ‘laulujoutsen’ which actually literally means ‘song swan’. The name comes from the “singing” that the birds do when they fly. If you have never heard it before, you can listen to a recording here.