Overview
- NABU recorded the season’s first major onward movement this week, with more than 20,000 cranes flying over Hessen toward France on Monday.
- Two primary corridors carry birds across the country: one via Hessen through Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland into France, and another from Lower Saxony through North Rhine-Westphalia, with a lighter route across southern Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
- Recent counts include about 23,000 at the Vorpommersche Küste and roughly 25,000 currently at Gülper See, while Linumer Teiche holds a record of 95,000 roosting cranes.
- An estimated 400,000 cranes will transit Germany in stages over several weeks before massing at France’s Lac du Der-Chantecoq and then wintering mainly in Spain’s Extremadura.
- Migration now occurs about two weeks earlier than 15 years ago, and at least 10,000 cranes overwintered in Germany last winter; conservation groups urge disturbance-free viewing to protect birds’ fat reserves.