The purpose of the BirdLife Suomen Joutsenbongaus event is to find out how big the autumn whooper swan population is and where the birds gather before the fall migration.
BirdLife Finland organizes the Joutsenbongaus event on Saturday and Sunday throughout the country, where swans are counted. The main focus of the event, which is open to everyone, is whooper swans, but observations of other swan species are also collected at the same time.
Whooper swans and whooper swans breed in Finland, the latter on the sea coast all the way to the Red Sea. In migrating flocks, you can also see cygnets that nest in the arctic regions, Kola and northern Russia. The species does not breed in Finland.
In the most recent bonga event in 2017 at the end of October, approximately 52,000 whooper swans were counted. At that time, the size of the fall population in the whole of Finland was estimated at 65,000–70,000 individuals. It is estimated that the stock has clearly grown over the past five years.
During autumn migration, swans gather before leaving for their journey to refuel in shallow places in waterways.
In the best places, the numbers of birds can be very large. For example, flocks of more than a thousand whooper swans have been counted in many autumns in Kemijärvi.
Lapland’s record, 2100 whooper swans at one time, was counted in 2003 from Lake Karunginjärvi in \u200b\u200bTornionjoki.
Anyone can participate in the swan party, and there is no need to register. Observations can be reported from Saturday to Tuesday on the website www.joutsenbongaus.fi