Autumn migration of cranes has started

Text Aivar Leito
Pnoto Arne Ader
English translation Liis

Estonian text posted 04.09.2018

Crane

Hello again crane friends!

On September 3rd in the morning  the first crane with transmitter, “Hauka 3”, started the autumn migration. ”Hauka 3” was hatched last spring in Hauka in the north-western corner of Põlva  County. It started at ten o’clock from the Tsooru fields and flew in a straight line southwards to the Teiči nature reserve in eastern Latvia which is the largest moss bog  in the Baltic countries. After a 120 km long flight it reached the bog at half past two and stayed to forage in the nearby Murmastiene fields and in the evening flew to the northern part of the bog for the night and was there also on the morning of September 4th. Its flight altitude was mostly 500 - 1000 m, with 2000 m as a maximum which is a quite large height for a relatively short migration flight. The flying speed was mostly about 50 km/h with 87 km/h as a maximum which is significantly more than usual and indicates help  from a tail wind. Now it will be interesting to see if ”Hauka 3” stays there for some time or continues to move southwards. We will get the answer within a few days. I myself think  that Hauka 3  will not start on a longer migration flight in the next few days.

See the path of the crane in the Bird Migration Map : LINK