If you are in Germany right now, make sure to look up in the skies, especially if you think you hear some honking or squawking. The Cranes are migrating in massive flocks on their way to N. Africa. It is a stunning and exciting thing to see. Everyone is taking videos and photos today and posting them on FB. Probably middle to southern Germany is good, but northern Germany may be experiencing this too.
Saw my 1st flock today around 08:30, 2nd one around 10:30 and 3rd one around 11:30.
Posted by
Oberpfalz, Germany
1389 posts
I heard something yesterday that I did not see. Sounded like geese. I'm not so much on the migration route though.
Posted by
North Carolina
2497 posts
Thanks for this, Mrs. Jo! I mostly notice Canada geese migrations where I am. I think it’s one of the most beautiful sounds in the world.
Posted by
Land of La
9233 posts
The March crane migration in the state of Nebraska is stunningly great. Yes, Nebraska!
Posted by
OP
Frankfurt, Germany
9222 posts
They do sound a bit like geese when they are flying overhead, but their huge formations give them away as cranes.
Posted by
California USA
4103 posts
What type of cranes are they Jo? We love going out to see our migrating birds all winter on the Pacific Flyway. Hope you will post a picture or two this month if you see/hear them again. Love to see the cranes and geese here and storks when we are in Europe.
EDIT: Hadn’t checked your personal site yet and I saw that you did include a beautiful video, thanks!
Posted by
Tucson, Arizona
502 posts
In southeastern Arizona, in a location called the Whitewater Draw near McNeal, Arizona (about 100 miles southeast of Tucson), the annual gathering of Sandhill Cranes is currently happening. They are in the area usually from November through February and are a sight to behold.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14751 posts
Exciting! Thank you for mentioning it. Those big migrations are so very interesting and your video on FB is just awesome!
For those that are interested, here's a link to European crane migration routes.
https://www.kraniche.de/en/crane-migration.html
For those in the US, there are several places where the Sandhill Cranes Claudia mentioned overwinter - Whitewater Draw in AZ and Bosque del Apache in NM are two easy places to see them.
Posted by
California USA
4103 posts
We too have the Sandhill Cranes in our area over the winter from Nov-March. We’ve gone 3x in the past 2 weeks to see their increasing numbers. Our biggest and favorite place here had about 500 cranes last week. Two new to us places we stopped by had some but not hundreds. The wintering ducks and geese are counted in the thousands. We never knew so many different kinds of waterfowl could be seen in one “small” area until we moved to this point on the Flyway 6 years ago.