Last Tuesday, at six o'clock in the morning, thirty ninth-graders from our school stood quietly in the cold at Agamon Hula, a nature park in the Hula Valley in northern Israel. They had come to see one of the most amazing shows in nature: thousands of cranes waking up and taking off together.
Israel is a small country, but for birds it is very important. It lies on one of the world's main migration routes, between Europe and Asia in the north and Africa in the south. Every autumn and spring, hundreds of millions of birds pass over the country. Many large birds, such as storks and pelicans, prefer to fly over land and not over the sea. They save energy by gliding on rising currents of warm air, which form over land but hardly ever over the sea.
Common cranes are among the most famous visitors. Tens of thousands of them stop in the Hula Valley in autumn. Some rest for a few days and continue south to Africa, but many stay for the whole winter. Because cranes eat seeds and young plants, farmers were worried about their fields. Today, corn is put out for the cranes in a special area, so the birds have food and the fields are protected.
The students watched from a covered wagon that moves slowly between the birds. “The noise was unbelievable,” said Omer, one of the students. “It sounded like thousands of trumpets.” Their guide explained that the birds are used to the wagon, so people can get close without frightening them.
In spring, the cranes fly back north to lay their eggs. The students plan to return in February, to see the birds again before they leave.