Dead website so it is here!!!

Once upon a time,.... in fact probably longer back than I care to remember, I and a couple of like minded Friends, or more like fools, spent, what was arguably one of the most uncomfortable nights ever on the Northern plains of Germany, we had endured consistent heavy rain, temperatures reminiscent of the Winter not long passed, and to top it all the beer had run out long before it was planned for, Strange 24 bottles in a crate 24 hours in a day, go figure?

First light was scheduled for around 06:30 CET, but already we could hear from the field adjacent to our selected ditch, the voices of several hundred Cranes beginning their morning ablutions and confirming their presence to each other.

We had tracked their movements North from lower Saxony, as we had cone on several years previously, but this year the numbers moving had, through weather conditions gathered in the northern plains,. Normally we would have a couple of hundred but this particular morning our initial count as the mist cleared was in the 2500 region.

What a sight it was, and the noise was incredible. To see this group lift virtually together would be difficult to describe but it was like watching a flock of 4 foot tall Knot struggling into the air.

So it was a great thrill to see the Common Crane on the North Shropshire plains this year and for them to stay rather than in previous years pass through.

Needless to say photo's had to be done so here they are a small selection.

I am reliably informed that the Cranes passing through Germany are still following the same routes north but numbers have not since then reached such figures.

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Paul