Cranes alert

They're on their way!

The great migration of common cranes (grue cendrée, grus grus) southwards has started. On September 24, Alain Gendeau in Limousin reported:

Over my area the first cranes have been seen. The 12 september 2014 around 30 cranes and the 17 september 2014 ; 20 cranes over Limousin France.

Martin Kraft, in Marburg, Germany, reported

Yesterday, Sept. 23rd 2014 at 7.30 p.m. the first 16 cranes passed the Marburg area to the SW.
Today, Sept. 24th 2014 at 11.43 a.m. 21 cranes flew SW some 5 kms  southwest of Marburg.

This morning, Pekka Mustakallio in Finland reported:

In Finland was the great migration 23.9.14: In Sauvo (25 km SE from Turku) 23000 migrating cranes (the finnish record/day).
We have ringed in this year 105 crane with colorring.
I am waiting again with great interest for the colorring observations! We have a new countrycode black-yellow-yellow.

Be on the lookout for Finnish cranes with black, yellow and yellow rings on their legs!

For many years, the European Crane Working group, with the support of the LPO Champagne-Ardennes, has been monitoring the progress of crane migrations throughout and beyond Europe.

The current status of the 2014 migration can be found on their web site here. The common language between all the European groups is English. If you see any cranes, you can record observations directly via the Visionature database (if you are a member), or you can fill in and return the online form (formulaire spécifique). Either of these two methods is very easy, and any record of the crane migration is valuable.I've used both methods, so please let me know if you need any help.