A pair of Lithuanian cranes, which are equipped with two GPS/GSM devices, began their migration journey on 6 September at 10:30h from Manciuna, crossing the border with Poland at 13:00h and stopping to sleep at Topilec at 19:30h. The next day they set off to the south at 07:15h, crossing the border into Slovakia at 20:00h and continuing into the night, until stopping at 23:45h at Északilucernas, close to the Hungarian border.
On the 8th, they set off at 07:00h and arrived at Hortobagy National Park (HU) at 08:45h, thus ending the first stage of their migration after covering 755 km southwards.
Map nº: Migration route of the Lithuanian pair between 6 and 8 September 2023. Source: Animal Tracker.
These cranes began the second stage of their journey on 1 November, leaving Hortobagy at 08:45h, heading south-west, and stopping at 16:45h at Szabadszállás, where they left on the 4th at 11:30h, heading west-north-west, stopping near Lake Neusiedl in Austria at 17:00h, after covering 445 km. They set off on the 6th at 08:16h, flying over Lake Chiemsee in Germany, southwest of Munich, and continued flying through the night, flying over Liechtenstein at 21:30h, arriving at Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, at 10:22h on the 7th, after flying 700 km. This route took them around the north of the Alps and into eastern France.
The set off on the 8th at 08:45h, flying over Montpellier, France, at 22:00h, crossing the border into Spain through the Pyrenees of Huesca at 02:00h. They stopped at the River Noguera Pallaresa, south of Tremp in Lleida, at 04:30h and set off again at 12:00h, continuing the journey to arrive at Gallocanta Lagoon at 21:30h, having covered 690 km. They stayed at the lagoon until 14 November, when they left at 11:30h, moving to Alarcón Reservoir (CU) where they slept, a distance of 112 km. The next day they left at 11:00h to
the west, with dense fog in the upper Guadiana and Tajo catchment areas, flying over the Torre de Abraham Reservoir (CR) at 15:45h, and at 17:00h they entered Extremadura over the Cijara Reservoir (BA), arriving at the rice fields by the River Cubilar at 18:45h, where they spent the night after covering 292 km.
They set off on the 16th at 09:00h, arriving in the dehesas at La Roca de la Sierra (BA) at 17:15h, and later went to roost at Villar del Rey Reservoir (BA) at 21:15h, covering 124 km in this final stage.
The final stage for this pair and their chick brought them to a total of 3,028 km travelled from the breeding area, taking two months and 10 days, with a stop at Hortobagy (HU) for one month and 23 days and a second stop of 5 days at Gallocanta Lagoon (Z/TE).
Map nº: Second stage of the Lithuanian cranes’ journey, from Hortobagy to Extremadura. Source: Animal Tracker.
These cranes began their return journey on 23 February at 11:00h. The flock of 350 birds was seen in the first few minutes flying over the dehesas of Puebla de Obando by Juan de Dios León, heading directly to the east-north-east. They flew over La Aldea del Obispo (CC) to the River Almonte and continued to the south of Jaraicejo (CC), going around the north end of the Villuercas cordillera (Mesas de Ibor, 13:40h), leaving Cáceres province to the south of Valdecañas Reservoir. They continued through Toledo province to Torrijos (15:00h), from where they headed east to Villamanrique de Tajo (16:05h), where they turned again towards the north-east, to reach Buendía Reservoir (CU) at Villaba del Rey at 17:04h. They covered 375.8 km in 6 hours, at an average speed of 62.5 km/h.
Map nº: Route covered by the Lithuanian cranes on 23 February to Buendía Reservoir (CU). Source: Animal Tracker.
They left on the 24th at 10:45h heading north-east, flying over the Alto Tajo Natural Park, arriving at Gallocanta Lagoon, near Bello, at 14:30h, after travelling 126 km in 3.75 hours, at an average of 33.6 km/h.
They stayed at the lagoon because of the inconvenient wind, and managed to get away on the 26th at 11:15h, heading north-east to Fuentes de Ebro (Z), where they changed direction to east-north-east to fly to the north of Lleida at 15:00h. They headed towards the Pyrenees at La Alta Garrotxa, reaching Sant Llaume de Lierca (LL), where they changed direction to head south-east to Verges (GI) – 19:29h – and turned again to the north to arrive at Aiguamolls de L’Empordá at 21:15h, having travelled 445 km in 9 hours of flight, at an average speed of 49.4 km/h.
During these four days spent crossing Spain (with a stop at Gallocanta Lagoon) they travelled 946.6 km in 18 hours and 15 minutes, at an average of 52.6 km/h.
They stayed at Aiguamolls until the 29th due to the strong north wind. They took off that day at 10:00h and went out to sea over the Gulf of León from Cape Ras at Llancà (GI) as part of a flock of 150 (Gérard Defontaine), with a strong northerly wind which subsided and became favourable, reaching The Camargue (FR) at 15:00h, having flown 200km over the sea, at an average of 40 km/h.
Map nº: Route followed by the pair of Lithuanian cranes on their journey across Spain. Source: Animal Tracker.
Map nº: Flight across the Gulf of León on 29 February. Source: Animal Tracker.
Map nº: Wind strength an hour after their departure. Fortunately, this decreased in intensity and turned north an hour later, which aided their arrival on the French coast, but if it had kept up the cranes could have been diverted, in all probability, to Corsica. Info: Kees Woutersen, Source: Windy.
The next day they left The Camargue at 10:00h, flying over the north side of Monaco at 14:45h and then going out over the Ligurian Sea and the Gulf of Genoa at 16:00h, reaching Italy to the west of Genoa at 18:45h. They continued northwards to Novi Ligure, where they turned west at 21:00h and continued as far as the River Orba, northwest of Capriata d’Orba, where they landed as 22:15h, after covering 371km at an average of 55 km/h.
Map nº: Route taken on 1 March. Source: Animal Tracker.
They left on 2 March at noon, to the north-east, advancing only 71 km to cross the River Po at San Cipriano Po and then resting on the west bank at 18:00h, a very slow progress, probably affected by the wind.
They stayed until the 4th, when they left eastwards at 11:45h, and after Piacenza they doubled back and stopped on the riverside at 16:00h.
They restarted the journey on the 5th, heading east-north-east, flying well to the north of Mantua at 12:15h and then Padua at 14:30h, arriving at the Cormor Estuary at 17:45h, on the north shore of the Marano Lagoon, to spend the night there. They flew at 33.2 km/h to travel 266 km.
They recommenced their migration on the 7th at 10:30h, crossing the Slovenian border at noon and flying over the capital, Ljubljana, at 14:00h, continuing to the east of the country and trying to stop at the River Mestinjšcica near Stranje at 17:15h. However, they continued their journey, leaving the country and entering Croatia at 17:40h, crossing the north of this country and entering Hungary, stopping at Kivadar at 23:45h, travelling 387 km.
On 8 March they set off at 05:15h east-north-eastwards to Pangy, arriving at 19:15h, having flown 407 km.
Map nº: Route taken on 7 and 8 March. Source: Animal Tracker.
They stayed there until 14 March, when they set off at 09:24h, crossing the Polish border and travelling 360 km to the Zemplinska area. They set off from here the next day at 09:12h and travelled 245km to the north-east, arriving near Zmiarki at 20:30h.
They began the final stage on the 16th at 07:20h, crossing the border with Belarus at 12:05h and arriving at their breeding area in Lithuania at 16:27h, after travelling 156km.
The total number of days taken since they left their wintering area at Puebla de Obando to arrive at their breeding area was 22 days, 12 of which they stayed on the ground, so that the total was 10 flying days, travelling 3,410 kilometres, making for a daily average of 340km. The longest journey day was between Gallocanta Lagoon and Aiguamolls de L’Empordá, when they flew 445 km.
Map nº: Autumn and Spring routes taken by the Lithuanian cranes. Source: Animal Tracker
These cranes travelled 6,437 km over the two journeys. The autumn journey was somewhat shorter in distance, about 400 km less, though they spent the same number of days flying, this being 10 days. They left on 8 September and were in Hortobagy National Park on the 10th, where they stayed until 1 November, which was when they set off for Spain. They arrived on 16 November in the dehesas of Puebla de Obando and La Roca de la Sierra (BA), where they spent three months and one week of the winter, until they began their return journey. In total, they were away from their breeding area for a period of 6 months.
