The cranes reacted immediately, with plenty of northbound migration as a result. I thus did the long hike in the Ardennes I usually do each autumn, seeing around 900 cranes in total, plus several Red Kites.
Other new birds for the year included Lesser Redpoll, Bullfinch, lots of Crossbills, and a pair of Dippers I managed to find along the River Salm during my 20-minute wait at Trois-Ponts train station.
Before our winter visitors all disappear, I decided to try and add Bewick's Swan to my year list yesterday evening by visiting their roost on the Kalmthoutse Heide after work. It was a beautiful evening as you can see below but the swans didn't arrive until 19:17, by which time it was almost dark and I was already on my way back. They flew right over me calling, however, so I at least heard them, taking my list to 130 species by the end of February.
