Hundreds of thousands of birds soaring over the Hula Valley - watch

Hundreds of thousands of common cranes and other birds had been counted taking a break while flying south.

Migrating cranes staying in Hula Lake Park (photo credit: COURTESY OF THOMAS KRUMENACKER TO KKL-JNF)
Migrating cranes staying in Hula Lake Park
(photo credit: COURTESY OF THOMAS KRUMENACKER TO KKL-JNF)
Hundreds of thousands of birds were seen taking a break on their flight south at the Hula artificial lake in northern Israel on Monday morning.

Visited by more than half a billion birds during the migrating season, the Hula Valley is a known stopping point for birds flying from Europe to Africa, on their way to warmer places.
The valley was selected by BBC Wildlife as one of the 10 most important nature observation points on earth in 2009.
Israel is usually visited by the common crane and the Demoiselle crane.
Israelis flock to the small lake during the migrating season to observe the graceful cranes on their tour of the world.