Winter excursion to Beijershamn on Öland. Mother and daughter go out on a pier and look for birds.
03 May 2026

Excursion to Beijershamn & Sandbergen

Join Helena Elm and her family on an excursion to Beijershamn and Sandbergen. 

Beijershamn is located roughly by Haga Park on central Öland, not far from Färjestaden. There is a two-kilometer-long pier into the sea that you can walk on, which was built in the mid-1800s to become an important port on the west side of the island. However, the construction was incorrectly constructed, and after a few years the harbor began to sludge again and had to be taken out of use, but nothing bad that does not have anything good with it! The fact that the reeds migrated in and there were beach meadows, reeds and water surfaces alternately created a unique environment that has made Beijershamn a real bird spot.

Winter excursion to Beijershamn on Öland. Children look curiously at paintings that tell about birds that fly around Beijershamn.

The Beijershamn Nature Reserve is one of Öland's best places for bird watching, and about 250 different species have been spotted here. Butterflies also thrive here when it's warmer, and up to 650 different species of butterflies have been spotted here, and Evelyn spotted some long-billed friends on the paintings that she said she was going to look for. She was also going to look for unicorns, she declared. Unfortunately, we didn't see any curlew or unicorn, but we did see a few other birds.

Winter excursion to Beijershamn on Öland.
Winter excursion to Beijershamn on Öland. A father with his little daughter walks on a footbridge in front of a birdwatching tower.

We saw Canada geese flying over us in a beautiful V-formation before we went on to Sandbergen, Sandbergen is a stone's throw from Beijershamn, and we sat down by a fallen tree trunk in the forest where the pines grow so large and stately that we usually call it the pillared hall. We were hungry for snacks and brought hot onion soup in a thermos and flatbread for the kids. (No point in even trying to sell onion soup to the little food critics.)

Winter excursion to Sandbergen on Öland. A father and daughter drink hot chocolate and look out towards the sea.
Winter excursion to Sandbergen on Öland. Mother and daughter look over the high shoreline.

Where the pines stop growing, the sand slopes take over, and the nature is spectacular and dramatic at the same time.

You can understand why it's called Sandbergen!
The jetties out into the water are picked up this time of year, but the stairs down to the pebble beach are still standing, the ice looked like frozen waves that had stopped in time, and we walked along the beach to see if we could find any beautiful shells or rocks to look at.

Onion soup for a snack in all its glory, but in the end we were so hungry for lunch that we actually had to go home. On the way back we stopped at Arontorps Body Cookies and bought dumplings in their new drive-in. Just say how many dumplings you want, and it's packed up, you pay, and then it's done. Significantly faster than at the hamburger chains. And more fun and delicious also with Öland dumplings!