Censing the common crane. Friday afternoon I took part into a census of common crane (Grus grus). The common crane is a big bird that nest in northern Europe and Asia. Cranes of the Western Palearctic winter mainly in Spain, but also in the south of France, Portugal, and in the north of Africa. So, we have a great responsibility in the conservation of this species. This is a coordinated census carried out yearly by volunteers and professionals in Extremadura (a region in the south-west of Spain, close to the border with Portugal), and some years it is also made in all Spain. I’ve been participating for four years already. I usually go just with my boyfriend, but this time a student from the Netherlands, who is doing a short stay at my university, joined us. So we went to this nice wooded rangeland with an artificial pond where cranes take shelter during the winter’s nights and we counted them. We had to be there two hours before sunset, because they usually come slowly in small groups during the afternoon, and then, when it is almost completely dark they come in big groups. In this last moments counting them can be challenging, so I really appreciated the extra help I had this time. Finally, we counted 1,179 cranes, so it was a nice afternoon.