Barth (dpa / mv) – In the north-east, the crane season is approaching its peak. An estimated 35,000 cranes are now resting along the coast between Barth (Vorpommern-Rügen) in the west and including Rügen in the east, said Günter Nowald, head of the Nabu crane center in Groß Mohrdorf near Stralsund. “We will then normally have the rest peak between October 5th and 15th.” Then between 40,000 and 70,000 cranes are on site at the same time.
According to Nowald, the large birds can also be found in the interior of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for example in the Müritz region. A total of around 175,000 cranes probably migrate through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania during one season. They come from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe and mainly move to Spain, but increasingly also to France. More than 250,000 animals stayed in Spain last winter and more than 150,000 in France. “And a few thousand cranes actually stay in Germany now.”
The north-east is particularly suitable for observing the animals. For example, you can watch the flight into the sleeping places from ships. Another possibility is the two-story observation station on Lake Günzer – the “Kranorama”. In front of it there is a feeding area. “That’s why there are always cranes, geese, and sea eagles,” said Nowald.
Bird lovers should set off slowly. “It’s actually best until mid-October. After that, the numbers decrease again, and the days are getting shorter and shorter.”
According to Nowald, there are now cranes breeding in Germany again because of protective measures. The leader spoke of over 11,000 breeding pairs, about half of them in the north-east. It was followed by Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein. “We now have cranes in many federal states.” In some, like Hesse, Thuringia or Baden-Württemberg, there are just a couple or a handful of couples.
Due to increasing drought, however, the pairs often did not breed. The animals often lack the damp ground as protection against foxes or wild boar, explained Nowald.
