Cranes in Germany on the migration route

[Botswanadreams]

 

Like most of you we had to cancel our planed trip in 2020. What can you do to see a bit wildlife? We went this week to a place only 100 km far from our home to see thousands of Common Cranes in the evening and the early morning on one of the lesser known German resting places on there migration route from Scandinavia and Poland to France and Spain. 

 

This little Video is only one minute from a 1.5 hours beautiful nature spectacle in the early morning.  

[wilddog]

Wow! Thanks for posting 

[Soukous]

There is a similar site near where I am staying in Lower Saxony, but the big numbers passed through about 10 - 14 days ago. A great spectacle.

[mvecht]

Very nice video. I probably saw a few thousand of your birds when they migrated over and near my house in late September and early October.

[Botswanadreams]

Many thanks @wilddog, @Soukousand @mvecht. 

 

Kelbra is now the most southern resting place on the western migration route. Since 1996 with a maximum of 2300 birds counted on one day over the years it increased up to more than 40.000 counted on one day. Sometimes cranes stay there for an overnight stop only. Others stay for one, two or three weeks before they normally fry to northern France. It is a come and go from mid October to mid November. Last year there were a few cranes over the whole winter on this artificial lake.  

 

 

 

 

[mvecht]

@Botswanadreams I love Cranes!

I normally use this site https://transtat.lansstyrelsen.se/ which is unfortunately in Swedish only, but I think you can still get an idea. Hornborgasjøn in Sweden is supposed to be spectacular in Spring when more than 20,000 Cranes are finding therir mates and doing the courtship

In Autumn it gives an idea of when to start looking for the Cranes. I have not seen it yet but it is supposed to be spectacular in Spring when 

The Eastern migration is also spectacular. More than 50,000 Cranes spend the winter in the Hula Valley.

Have a look at this video I found on Youtube 

 

 

I was there last November and it was spectacular.

 

Do you know any German websites I can use in Spring to predict the migration going North?

[Botswanadreams]

@mvecht this video is amazing. It remain me on images from Khichan/ India were thousands of Demoiselle Cranes come to the feeding place. Unfortunately we were a bit to late for this bird show but saw a lot in the red sand dunes of the Thar Dessert around the village. 

 

I haven't found any proper information for the Spring migration in Germany jet.  https://kraniche.de/en/ is the official website but too me it is not helpful. The information about the autumn migration in Kelbra for example I found by accident in a regional news paper. 

[inyathi]

@BotswanadreamsGreat video, thanks to you guys letting us have some of your cranes, I read in some news from the RSPB today, that we now have 200 cranes in the UK and they are breeding in England, Scotland and Wales, maybe one day we will enjoy sights like in your video here, perhaps on the Somerset Levels in the Southwest of England.  The eggs that were taken to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust HQ at Slimbridge, were collected from the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve in Brandenberg, the small colony of cranes that naturally recolonised Norfolk in 1979, would have taken a long time to repopulate the UK, so German cranes raised by WWT at Slimbridge have made a massive difference and have ensured that cranes are now back for good.

 

This news report is from 2018

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by inyathi

[Botswanadreams]

Thank you very much @inyathi for your replay. It is a interesting article from RSPB. I hope you will get our cranes in a bigger number back to the UK. In general I believe that our children have to change a lot in the distribution map of birds around the world. Like the Long-tailed duck normally stay in the winter time on the Baltic Sea but last year we had a pair on a lake close to our home near Leipzig. 

[EvelonesJohn]

Oh, I feel you, So many canceled plans these years… thanks for the video though, it really made my day😊 Lately my favorite pastime is watching such videos online and I believe most of you can relate. Despite this, I’m still cherish hope that the world will open again and I’ll be able to go on a tour with these guys Costaricafocus.com. Birds in the pictures look amazing, my biggest dream is to observe them live

Edited January 14, 2022 by EvelonesJohn