Grues are flying again!

Once again the grues are flying north, one of the wonderful sights (and sounds) of this region. We saw two flights this afternoon, each of more than 100 birds. These birds know a thing or two, so if their instincts say 'go north', hopefully it means that the worst of the winter is over. In which case, this will be our first winter here in 6 years without any snow!

Hi Peirol
We also saw 2 huge "gatherings" (or whatever the collective term is for cranes*) on Monday afternoon; the second must have been around 2-300. As you say, it's always a welcome sight to witness these harbingers of spring. This winter has been incredibly mild; hopefully we'll not get a late frost like we have had in the last couple of years, which decimated the cherry picking.

* suggestions welcome e.g. a cacophony of cranes? a croaking of cranes?? I'm sure there must be some better ones than these.

We haven't seen or heard any here (about 10kms south of La Souterainne)
Whereabouts are you?

Hi twointheeye
We are approximately 8 km north of La Souterraine. We always hear the cranes going south in October & November but seldom hear them flying north in the spring. I don't know whether that's because they take a slightly different route or maybe we just don't hear them. It's always their call that alerts us before we actually see them.

Un troupeau de grues?

Haven't seen or heard them yet, must watch with southern winds and less rain... Good sign anyway, spring is in the air?

It's all the males that arrive first, isn't it, to get a nice cosy nest ready for when their ladies arrive. Maybe the females will fly further to the west and we'll get to see them.

We heard a largish troupeau de grues just now going north, direction lac de Marcillac, where I think they will spend the night together. They were chattering very loudly, but we could not see them, it being dark. So I think they were debating wether (?) to settle down for the night or fly on, but I think the majority vote was to rest their bones at Marcillac.

So Simmo, Spitfire and Blakevine, we can go and have a butcher's tomorrow morning around the lake at 7:00am. We can have a café and croissant together afterwards in the PMU at 8:00am???

Oh, I love it here and spring is definitely in the air!

I've just found this NZ site about collective nouns for birds:

http://www.nzbirds.com/more/nounsc.html

I rather like the idea of a "construction of cranes"    but some of the others are good too.

[quote="Amber"]I rather like the idea of a "construction of cranes"   [quote]

Hi Amber, I rather like that as well. Another suggestion: a collaboration of cranes??

Wow, there's quite a few:

Cranes, a construction of
Cranes, a dance of
Cranes, a family of
Cranes, a flock of
Cranes, a herd of
Cranes, a pair of
Cranes, a sedge of
Cranes, a siege of
Cranes, a sledge of
Cranes, a swoop of
Cranes, a thumping of
Cranes, a wedge of
Cranes (Hooded), a flock of
Cranes (Hooded), a pair of
Cranes (Hooded), a wedge of
Cranes (Lilford), a trumpting of
Cranes (Sand Hill), a kettle of

I would like to add: a choir of cranes   

But I quite like also a swoop of cranes.

Over the last few days I've seen small flocks going over St Leger Magnazeix.

a construction of Cranes puts a daft picture in my mind of large metal building site cranes with wings flying in V formation across the sky     

There are large flocks of cranes expected to cross the Pyrenees today with the good weather and southern winds, so we should see more of them today and tomorrow   .

I assume you mean the winged type & not the metal ones Myriam 

Hi Myriam
Sorry i missed your message the other day.I can however confirm your sighting on friday 21st, the Grues fly up from your neck of the woods and circled Chabanier before landing at the northen end of the Lac by Combrignac for the night.
Simmo in the High Correze.

Myriam wrote:We heard a largish troupeau de grues just now going north, direction lac de Marcillac, where I think they will spend the night together. They were chattering very loudly, but we could not see them, it being dark. So I think they were debating wether (?) to settle down for the night or fly on, but I think the majority vote was to rest their bones at Marcillac.

So Simmo, Spitfire and Blakevine, we can go and have a butcher's tomorrow morning around the lake at 7:00am. We can have a café and croissant together afterwards in the PMU at 8:00am???

Oh, I love it here and spring is definitely in the air!

Sorry Myriam I have just seen your post and would love to have caught up at Marcillac but at the moment we are in Portugal :-)

Yesterday evening, about 6.30, there were literally thousands flying over - an awe-inspiring sight.

The right sort of flight path to be under

I love seeing them twice a year, always a lovely reminder that either winter or spring is on the way.

Sorry to have missed all this (we were in UK). Not so sure about the 7am start, but, coffee&croissant sounded good......and for the record we have not seen or heard anything down by the gorges.....K