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Follow the crane migration live with the "Crane Radar"
Birdwatchers beware! The next few weeks are all about crane migration. When the wind is just right, sometimes thousands of "cranes" fly over the Netherlands. But even with those numbers, it is not easy to spot them. That is why Dr Koen de Koning, in collaboration with Sensing Clues, developed an app that works as a 'rainfall radar for cranes'. This makes spotting a lot easier.
The Crane radar, as De Koning himself calls it, shows you at any time of the day where and when you could see cranes flying overhead. How convenient: that way you know exactly where to go to admire these graceful birds, or even see from your armchair when it is the right time to look up.
The idea was born out of a frustration from De Koning: always just too late to see them, standing in the wrong place or leaving too early. These frustrations will be familiar to many a birder. The aim of this so-called 'digital twin' of crane migration is to make life easier for birders. But also to gain new insights into the ecology of this special migratory bird.
You can participate
The app is available to everyone. With it, you can see where the cranes are currently flying, which direction they are flying and at what speed. But you can also contribute by submitting your own crane sightings via www.waarneming.nl. Be sure to indicate: the exact location (of the cranes, not yourself), time of observation (accurate to the minute), direction of flight (e.g. 'overflying south-west'), and number of birds. The app then calculates where your cranes are flying to, so that other birders on the route can be informed.
The peak of crane migration over the Netherlands normally takes place around late October, early November. The birds then come from the moors around Diepholz, Germany, where they wait for the right conditions to depart: northeast wind, the first night frost and clear weather. Under these conditions, a large proportion of all cranes often migrate over the Netherlands in a single day. A good reason to keep a close eye on the weather forecast.
The science behind the app
Although Crane Radar is a fun online tool for birdwatchers, in the end, De Koning is more concerned with the science behind the app. Developing so-called 'digital twins' of natural phenomena is something completely new in ecology and conservation. Predicting exactly what is going on in nature right now requires a lot of data, and scientific and expert knowledge about these phenomena (such as crane migration, for example). From his role as a researcher at Wageningen University & Research, De Koning is investigating exactly what knowledge is needed for this, what kind of data, and how to tie it all together. This in turn could lead to more scientific research, to learn more about ecology, or to better targeted data collection, so that we can monitor nature more efficiently. In the coming years, he hopes to use these insights to develop many more digital twins, with the ultimate goal of using this technology to better protect nature.
