Cranes dancing on the dune heaths and bogs

Common crane (Grus grus) — a returning breeder since the 1990s; golden eagle at Lille Vildmose; nightjar and woodlark at dusk on the same heaths. Hanstholm Vildtreservat (Thy), Lille Vildmose, Vejlerne, Læsø, Denmark.

Best time: 15 Mar – 20 Apr (March to April). Where: Sårup bird tower, Hanstholm Vildtreservat, Lille Vildmose – Portlandmosen / Høstemark tower, Vejlerne – Bygholm dyke (Denmark). Time of day: Duets and dancing from 45 min before sunrise to about 2 h after (the coast road is quiet at 05:00).

• You can go on your own
• Free
• Binoculars essential
• Sound 5/5

Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.

When is the best time?

Peak: 15 Mar – 20 Apr. Mid March to 20 April (pairs dancing and trumpeting before settling to nest)

Active from 1 Mar to 15 May (March to May) in a typical year.

Time of day

Duets and dancing from 45 min before sunrise to about 2 h after (the coast road is quiet at 05:00); a second bout of calling in the hour before sunset.

• Dawn duets and dance: 45 min before sunrise → 2 h after sunrise
• Evening calling: 1 h before sunset → sunset

What will you hear?

Crane pairs duetting and bugling across the wet dune slacks at first light, the dance's wing-flaps, curlew, golden plover and snipe drumming around them; ravens; the North Sea in Thy.

Binoculars?

Binoculars essential. Cranes dance a few hundred metres from the Sårup tower at first light; binoculars needed, a scope shows the dance.

Where to go

• Sårup bird tower, Hanstholm Vildtreservat — Cranes dance in the wet dune hollows below the tower in March–April; reserve east of the coast road closed 1 Apr–15 Jul. Map
• Lille Vildmose – Portlandmosen / Høstemark tower — Raised bog with several crane pairs and Denmark's first golden eagles; towers and boardwalks. Map
• Vejlerne – Bygholm dyke — Cranes on the meadows and in the reed edge. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Sårup tower (Thy): car park off Route 181, tower open at all hours, free. Lille Vildmose: Høstemark and Portlandmosen towers and boardwalks from the public roads, free. Vejlerne: the Bygholm dyke.

Cost: Free.

Field-recording notes

Thy's crane hollows are a few hundred metres from the tower — a parabolic or long shotgun from the tower at dawn; the tower is open at all hours and the coast road (Route 181) is quiet at 05:00. Lille Vildmose's bog is fenced (wild boar and red deer enclosure) and the boardwalks are open; the tower near Høstemark gives cranes and eagles together. March mornings are -3 °C and windy; use the tower's lee. Cranes are highly disturbance-sensitive at nest sites — no approach after mid April.

Sources

• Naturstyrelsen – Hanstholm Vildtreservat året rundt
• Aage V. Jensen Naturfond – Lille Vildmose

Similar spectacles

• Müritz: cranes, ospreys and sea eagles in summerGermany · Dawn chorus & song · peak 20 Apr–10 Jun and 20 Sep–31 OctCrane pairs duetting at dawn from the bogs, bittern booming, osprey whistles over the lakes, eagle calls, woodlark and nightjar on the sandy heaths at dusk, marsh frogs; in autumn thousands of cranes flying into Rederangsee.
• Vejlerne: bitterns, cranes and Northern Europe's largest reedbedsDenmark · Dawn chorus & song · peak 20 Apr–5 JunBittern booming from several directions at once, spotted crake whiplashes, water rail squeals, cranes trumpeting at dawn, bearded reedlings pinging, greylag families, black terns over the lagoons; wind in 8 km of reed.
• Spring crane staging: Hornborgasjön and PulkenSweden · Migration · peak 25 Mar–12 AprThousands of cranes bugling in chorus — trumpeting that carries for kilometres, rising to a roar when a flock lifts; unison calls of pairs, wing noise of landing flocks, whooper swans and lapwings in the background.
• Cranes at Lac du DerFrance · Migration · peak 20 Oct–20 Nov and 10 Feb–10 MarTens of thousands of cranes bugling as they leave the lake at first light in wave after wave, then the evening return with the sky full of trumpeting skeins.
• Cranes at Laguna de GallocantaSpain · Migration · peak 1 Nov–30 Nov and 15 Feb–10 MarUp to 100,000 cranes lifting off the salt lagoon at first light in a continuous trumpeting roar that lasts half an hour, then skeins bugling over the steppe villages.
• Common cranes buglingUnited Kingdom · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Dec–15 MarTrumpeting bugles carrying over 2 km, unison calls from pairs, and the low rolling contact calls of a roosting group in the reeds.

More: all spectacles in Denmark · cranes · dawn choruses · March · Denmark in April