The common crane arrives in great flocks in October and stops off to rest on the long migratory flight south. The Golden Aue together with the Kelbra reservoir is the third-largest inland resting place for tens of thousands of cranes in Germany. During the day they search for food on the corn stubble fields and freshly mown meadows. At dusk they return to the drained reservoir where they can sleep, protected in the shallow waters from ground predators.