The crane - one of nature's real high flyers
It's about this time of year that farmer's fields across Germany make a handy fuel stop for birds flying south for the winter. Bird lovers often make the trip to known feeding spots for some impressive sights and sounds.
Three, two, one, go!
Their runway is a field in Brandenburg. Their destination is southern France. If the weather gets colder, then they'll go further - to North Africa. Takeoff is always early for these stately migratory birds, which fly to an altitude of some 4,000 meters (13,000 feet).
What are you looking at?
Higher, faster further: More and more bird lovers now follow the route of the crane. They don't just come from Germany but also from the Netherlands and Great Britain, watching as the birds gather in formation in ever-increasing numbers. In the past ten years, the number of birds in Europe has grown from 220,000 to 350,000.
A spot of maturity
Cranes fly with a wing span of about 2.2 meters, and on the ground they are about 1.2 meters in height, and yet they weigh only about five kilograms (11 pounds). It's easy to tell if they're full-grown. While younger cranes have cinnamon-colored heads, older birds display red spots.
Frequent long-haul flyers
Cranes are adapted for long haul journeys. They can travel several hundred kilometers in just a day. There's a good reason they travel in groups - flying in a streamlined V-formation can significantly help a bird save energy. There might be anything from 10 to 200 birds in a group. It depends, at least in part, on the strength and direction of wind.
After working up a hunger
Cranes love corn, or at least what's left behind after the harvest. On a field in Lower Saxony, these birds are building up their fuel reserves. Many have come from Scandinavia or Russia, and are only in Germany as a stopover. They tend to stop in rural, unsettled areas - cranes also enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.
Dancing for a date
When a male crane wants to impress the ladies, he'll puff up his flight feathers to the max. If one of the females particularly takes his fancy then he'll jump up to a meter in the air. It's a charming, but also quite aggressive dance, which takes place when the birds return north in Spring.
True loudmouths
When a crane calls out, they can be heard up to three kilometers away. When they all "trumpet" together, it can sound like a very excited group of people. Every year, in September and October, you can year the sound of their cries that mark the end of summer. The birds do this for several weeks, so there's plenty of opportunity to hear them.