With a standing height of 1.4 metres, common cranes are Europe’s tallest birds and at this famous national park they collect in astonishing numbers as they migrate.

The autumn count is 180,000, although the only accessible spot to see them supports a sub-roost of 50,000. Each bird has a wingspan of 2 metres and the flight is slow and rhythmically precise. The visual effect of any large airborne congregation is at the scale of a whole landscape and its skies above.

Yet perhaps it is the sound that leaves the deepest impression. A crane’s vocal instrument, its syrinx, is located within an enormously elongated trachea, and the organ’s output is often referred to as “bugling”. The word might indicate the quantity of crane music, but says little of the quality.

The trumpeted note rises in pitch and volume, yet possesses coarser and rasped asperities within the brass.…