Migratory birds in Bonn The cranes are coming!
BONN · Around 120,000 cranes are expected in Bonn’s skies in the next few days. The city lies on one of the main winter migration routes.
The people of Bonn are fond of them and it is a fact they are the talk of the town each time they swoop over the city’s rooftops. And whoever wants to see this theatre in the sky should get ready. The first migratory movements have already been reported in North Rhine Westphalia and large flocks of birds can now be expected daily.
Just over 120,000 cranes fly along a westerly route. The flyway, along with one further east, forms one of the main migratory routes between Scandinavia and the Mediterranean.
Well over 100,000 cranes have gathered in North Germany and are resting there before flying south. When the weather conditions are good, the flocks of cranes will leave their meeting point in the early hours of the morning, and pass on both side of the Harz. The main flock will fly over Osnabrück, Hannover and Göttingen, will reach Weserbergland and then fly on at 80 kilometres an hour over the eastern Ruhr and then along the Rhine to Bonn. From Bonn they will head over the south Eifel to France.
It is not anticipated the cranes will land in Bonn. “That only happens in extreme weather conditions like thick fog or particularly strong wind,” said Heinz Kowalski from Naturschutzbund Deutschland or Nabu (German Conservation Society). “They usually fly through non-stop and cover the whole route in four to five days.”
(Original text: Rüdiger Franz. Translated by Kate Carey.)
