| Photo Information |
Copyright: Eyal Bartov (bartove)
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 170 W: 1 N: 484]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif) (6152) |
| Genre: Animals |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2009-02-13 |
| Categories: Birds |
| Camera: Canon 40 D, 17 -35 2.8 |
| Exposure: f/6.3, 1/2500 seconds |
| More Photo Info: [view] |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2009-06-22 13:34 |
| Viewed: 497 |
| Points: 8 |
|
| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Israel’s Huleh Valley is an important wintering location and crossing point along the eastern route. At the height of the season in November and December, some 40,000 cranes can be found in the valley.
In order to learn about the cranes’ migratory characteristics, four satellite transmitters were attached to cranes in the Huleh Valley at the end of 1998 to enable close tracking of the birds’ migration. The transmitter sends its signals to a satellite that orbits Earth once every hour and a half, and each orbit provides data on the bird’s location.
As the northern migration route is almost unknown, transmitters such as these can provide vital information on the cranes’ migration route and their stopover sites along the eastern route.
As with all new technology, not everything went smoothly and two of the four transmitters did not broadcast at all, but two adult cranes, Carolina and Drora, have been sending signals throughout the entire period and up to the present day, and their story is enthralling. In the meantime, three more cranes, Sabine, Carlos and Claus, who had transmitters attached to them in the winter of 1999, have joined Carolina and Drora.
The story of Carolina’s migration: After spending approximately four months in the Huleh Valley, Carolina took off on a migratory flight that included four stopovers. The big discovery was that Carolina crossed the Black Sea and her transmitter that worked perfectly during the crossing broadcast the entire route, She ended her migration in northwestern Russia on 24 May 1999 where she nested, and then returned to the Huleh Valley where she has remained to the present day.
Drora’s story is slightly different. About a month after the transmitter was attached to her, she took off and migrated southwards to the western Negev Desert. There we discovered an amazing phenomenon: every evening Drora flew to a nighttime resting place some 60 kilometers to the south, in the heart of the Sinai Peninsula, which is uncharacteristic of the Huleh Valley cranes who usually fly only short distances to their resting places. In March 1999, Drora migrated northward, stopping for one day in the Huleh Valley and then continued northward along the identical route taken by Carolina and ending some 500 kilometers south of Carolina’s nesting site. Drora returned to the valley in October 1999, and in December of the same year she was observed in the Huleh Valley accompanied by a male and two young. A few days later she left the Huleh Valley with her family and again migrated to the western Negev, but this time her visit was shorter, lasting only a month, and from there she returned to the Huleh Valley where she still is, together with her family. |
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