Hi Jonathan !
On the 30/4 2009 Jimmy Skat Hansen and I counted 3045 Siberian Cranes at this wetland which is the Momogue Reserve (within Xianghai NP).
According to Klaus Malling Olsen this corrsponds to app. 75 % of the total world population !
We were surprised to see such numbers
so late in the spring and actually small numbers were continously arriving late in the morning to the wetland from the south.
cheers
Lars
Hi guys ,
I’m afraid Klaus has been slightly optimistic regarding the global population of siberian crane , since according to Birdlife International the estimate has now slumped to 3200 individuals (se more on: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=2786&m=0). The surroundings of Chinese lake Poyang Hu is often regard as the place to watch siberian crane , since it is the wintering site for pretty much the entire world population - the highest count here in 2008 was 3119 birds!
With that in mind , your count , Lars , is truly and utterly impressive - almost matching Poyang Hu!! We “only” managed a maximum count of 1708 birds on the DOF-tour a week later , but even so it was a massively spectacular sight!
According to Jesper Hornskov , who definitely knows his way around China , Poyang Hu can be a difficult place to visit due to the weather conditions which are often rather bad , with days of very poor visibility. The Momoge Reserve might therefore be a good alternative for birders wanting to see these impressive birds in good numbers. Momoge is a reserve in its own right and NOT a part of the Xianghai Reserve , which lies some 140 kilometres to the SW – maybe the editors of Netfugl could change “Lokalitet” from Xianghai NP to Momoge Reserve (I'm sure Christian won't mind)? It isn’t really in southern Manchuria either , but rather in central Manchuria….
Cheers
Jon
Strictly speaking was it 1537 the 6th, 1456 the 5th., and 1708 the 7th.
A count of a part of the birds gave 537 adults and 92 immatures. Not that bad, I would say.
br Gorm
Hi,
There is two other places known to receive wintering siberian crane, Dong Ding Hu (lake) near Yueyang and Mu ping hu (lake) between Changsha and Zang Jia Jie both in north Hunan, this two place are really few visited by foreign birdwatchers.and the annual wintering population is not so clear. DOng Ding Hu is one of the biggest lake in China and is really attractive for geese and crane, i've seen over 2000 lesser white fronted geese this winter on a total of maybe 30 000 geese in one day, this place is really nice big and one week is probably not enough to prospect all the available places for crane....
Thanks for the counting details....
Cheers
Jonathan
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Beskrivelse: This photo showing three adult birds was taken on the 5th October 2001 at the only place in the Western Paleartic where Siberian White Crane is regularly seen.
Beskrivelse: Luckily two Siberian White Cranes returned to the famous Keoladeo Ghana Bird Sanctuary near Bharatpur, Northern India in October 2000 and were still present January 9, 2001 when Andreas Hagerman and I arrived at the reserve. Probably fewer than 50 individuals remain of the western population of Siberian White Crane. Besides the two wintering birds in India the rest of the population probably winters in Iran or Iraq. The photo was taken with a pocket camera through a Kowa TSN-1.
Hi Yoav..
You are right about the Siberian White Cranes - these two individuals were the last birds to be seen at Bharatpur. They left Bharatpur on febuary 28 1999 and did not return the following winther.
Indeed a shame - they were a real delicacy when visiting Keoladeo Nationalpark.
Best regards
Søren Kristoffersen
Great photo of Omid – the last remaining Siberian Crane in WP.
Congratulation for being part of the only team catching up with Omid and not leaving Azerbaijan before it arrived to Shirvan.
A truly blocker for WP-twitchers!
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