On my way back from the Hula Valley to Tel Aviv, I'm taking advantage of the wifi on our base. I've seen a lot of crane migration in my life and I've loved them all, but Israel is creeping up to the top spot in my heart. The Hula Valley is an incredible story of conservation, partnership and sheer biomass beauty.

Here's an up close shot of one of the 30,000 cranes. It is a common crane (Grus grus) and they sound an awful lot like sandhill cranes but look a bit different.