Cranes Flying Over Spain

[DBK]

Sorry this video is on Twitter, I can't find any other source for it.

If you can see it the birds are cranes flying in Spain on migration from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The birds spend the winter in Spain.

Turn the sound up if you can, the noise they are making is amazing.


I can feel a trip coming on for this time next year. As I'm "enjoying" a wet week in Brittany at the moment I now realise the bird's migration is something I should copy.

Just need to identify the best places in Spain to see them arrive.

 

[Hollyberry]

Used to get cranes flying like this over the house in France, was always good to see them coming back in Spring.
Flying alongside them over Venice

 

[DBK]

The link isn't working properly, so here's another version.


The link above is from Ian Parsons and if you have an interest in birds and Spain he is worth following. He runs bird watching trips generally in the Extremadura.

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[DBK]

Bit of info on cranes. It gives the best places to see them in Spain and also places they stop at en route to Spain.

Continental Cranes | The Great Crane Project

www.thegreatcraneproject.org.uk

 

[Viennese]

We saw them all a few years ago in Spain. Will look up my old journal and tell you camp site & date. A fellow camper told us they come from Russia and hang around for days waiting to assemble before they go off to Africa in a large floch. Iy was very exciting.

 

[Shrimp]

One year in France we saw them flying overhead, they do make a noise, but lovely to see them!

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[moulin 87]

Used to get cranes flying like this over the house in France, was always good to see them coming back in Spring.

They pass over our house, it is either a sign winter is coming or that Spring has arrived!! Normally spread over weeks, at first a few appear, then '00s then a few stragglers. Day or night. Anytime from mid October to early December. Then return mid Feb to early March. You can hear them from miles away.

 

[Viennese]

Hi there - found it - we were in France!! We were camped 13/10/10 at an ACSI site (Camping du Pont d'Abense) at Tardets-Sorholus in the Pyrenees. It was a good site with a very eccentric hippy lady in charge. - flowers in little pots everywhere. The town nearby was small but OK. The cranes were amazing and made such a lot of noise, but were very high up so no photos. Certainly worth seeing John.

 

[DBK]

Hi there - found it - we were in France!! We were camped 13/10/10 at an ACSI site (Camping du Pont d'Abense) at Tardets-Sorholus in the Pyrenees. It was a good site with a very eccentric hippy lady in charge. - flowers in little pots everywhere. The town nearby was small but OK. The cranes were amazing and made such a lot of noise, but were very high up so no photos. Certainly worth seeing John.

I believe there are passes in the Pyrenees where they cut through and some good views of them possible. If the weather is suitable of course at that time of year.

Bird migration is amazing. They have just tracked a Robin which flew across the North Sea to the UK having started possibly from Sweden or even Finland. They don't know exactly as the radio tracker was fitted in Germany.

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[Yorick]

We get lots of different birds at various times of the year. Lots of swallows here at the moment

 

[Speve]

Bit of info on cranes. It gives the best places to see them in Spain and also places they stop at en route to Spain.

Continental Cranes | The Great Crane Project

www.thegreatcraneproject.org.uk

A good place to go and see them up close is La Juanda wet lands a variety of rice paddies and cotton fields, about Fiteen minutes from Conil de La Frontier or Tarifa. You can see a really good selection of birds there we go every year.
here’s one with a Bonellis Eagle resting in front of it.

 

[DBK]

We get lots of different birds at various times of the year. Lots of swallows here at the moment

I didn't think you would get migratory birds in the Canaries but having just checked you do! Seems odd as they tend to take the shortest path over the sea but I guess the Atlantic is cooler for some than flying over the Sahara.

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[mitzimad]

Migration of any type is amazing to see.We were on the beach in st marie on the camargue and went for a walk back across the salt flats behind.As we walked along one of the rivers there were small fish in rows one metre deep on either bank heading for the sea we were walking for an hour and it was a constant stream.We followed them down and a the end of the river there is a pool with 4 small tubes that lead to the sea, the herons were having a feast on the fry and occasionally one would leap into one of the pipes to make it to the sea. lots of french fishermen were out on the beaches so i assume the migration attracts predatory fish to the area
It was awesome to watch the genetic programing that drove them to almost certain death and made me think how the first american settlers must have felt to see the bison on there migration

 

[vwalan]

lagune de gallocanta is the place to be.
normally begining of november .
there could be as many as 50,000 on the lake.
there is an information center by the lake.
one of the workers there is from glasgow .
we have visited it loads of times , one year there was no birds there .we hung around a few days as they told us in the center they were on the way.
then one evening they started to arrive , big v,s of about a hundred cranes .
we were told about 13,000 had arrived over night .
its amazing .
one year there was a world conferance at the time we were there . very interesting .
its near daroca on the way south from santander.
even the lake is an amazing place . it dries up in summer .
in winter its the biggest natural lake in spain.

 

[Spriddler]

Used to get cranes flying like this over the house in France, was always good to see them coming back in Spring.
Flying alongside them over Venice

How do they film those incredible flights? With a drone?

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[DBK]

How do they film those incredible flights? With a drone?

Done with a microlight I think. But almost certainly with trained birds, probably hand reared from eggs. They become imprinted on the humans as their parents and follow them.