Fotogalleri

nice group...the gathering was 1500 birds? Right? Sorry my poor danish make me understand only the numbers :-)

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