Cranes in Flight

We're in Captieux, south of Bordeaux--an area where cranes winter. These are headed north for the summer (away from us in this image); they may stop over at the Lac du Der in the Campagne in northeast France, before summering in Scandinavia or possibly Russia.

These are Eurasian or Common Cranes (Grus grus; they are widespread in Europe, with many wintering in Spain. They have mostly left this area to migrate north--we only saw three on the ground, at a grat distance, but we had about 700 in several groups flying northwards. Here is a close view of a female--one of a number we saw in Norway in June.

Other birds were fun to see, but not really blipworthy--best were perhaps several yellowhammers. N.B. The map location is very approximate, I'll try to improve it in the next day or so.