K. Cornelis Fokker (2024) Spring migration of Eurasian Cranes Grus grus though the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland. LIMOSA 97 (2): 73-78.

In the Dutch province of Zuid-Holland, in the west of the Netherlands, Eurasian Cranes are rare migrants. There are just a few days a year with a chance at a migrating group. The databases of the observation websites ‘Waarneming. nl’ (Netherlands) and ‘Waarnemingen.be’ (Belgium) were used to gain insight into the routes of migrating Cranes through the province of Zuid-Holland. In 2010-2021, 2120 observations of Cranes were recorded. Crane migration converged in an approximately 25 km wide strip between the towns of Ridderkerk and Gorinchem (Fig. 1). Fifty groups (68% of the total) were observed within this corridor, of which 24 groups were already be picked-up outside the province, either above the town of Breskens and/or further south along the Belgian coast (eight groups) or between the town of Terneuzen and the city of Antwerp (16 groups). Although groups of Cranes clearly travel along a preferred route through the province of Zuid-Holland in spring, it remains unclear what factors shape this migration corridor. More observations on groups passing the province are needed to understand how the landscape shapes the Cranes' flight paths.

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