The Hula Valley is a special place for many reasons (see last post), but it's perhaps most famous for its incredible numbers of Common Cranes. They're everywhere, as evidenced not just by their visual presence but by their constant squeaky-toy beeping and honking, which soundtracked our day in the valley.
We also took the dusk tour (via a tractor with a viewing trailor attached) to experience the roost flights and also to get within a few metres of many, but while it was well worth it (especially for the close-up Jungle Cat), we'd spent the day getting close to them in various places just by birding the area. We saw many thousands, but still probably only a percentage of the 50,000+ that are present in the area at this time of year. Magical.
