Plan an Evening with the Cranes at Linum, There and Back
Pick an autumn evening and how you will travel. The planner works out sunset and dusk at Linum, when the cranes fly in to roost, which train and bus gets you there and home, and how many cranes were counted in the same week in past years.
Bus and train times from the VBB timetable for autumn 2026, checked on 21 September 2026. No bus runs to Linum on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays this season. Crane counts are the Tuesday morning counts of the Landschaftsförderverein Oberes Rhinluch, 2018 to 2025. Sunset and dusk are calculated for Linum.
Every autumn tens of thousands of cranes gather at Linum, about 40 km from the edge of Berlin, and fly in to roost around the fish ponds as the light goes. Getting there is easy on a weekday and awkward at the weekend. Bus 758 from Nauen runs on weekdays only this season, and before the clocks go back on 25 October the last direct bus back leaves at 18:24, before it is dark. Pick your date and how you want to travel. The planner calculates sunset and dusk at Linum, draws the fly-in window from the local association’s rule of thumb, and lays your trip on the same timeline: the weekday bus with the right return, or the train to Kremmen, an 11 km ride in daylight and the first train back after dark. A second panel plots eight years of weekly crane counts with your date marked, and a map shows Kremmen, Nauen, the village and the viewing spots.
What the timeline shows
The top row is the light at Linum on your date: daylight, sunset and the moment it is properly dark. The second row is the fly-in window, from about 17:00 before the clocks change and about 16:00 after, until dark. The last rows are your trip, laid on the same clock, so you can see at a glance whether your bus home leaves before the birds have finished coming in.
How the trip is picked
On a weekday the planner takes the RE8 to Nauen and bus 758, choosing the arrival that gets you there before the fly-in and the return that leaves after dark: the 18:24 back to Nauen when that works, otherwise the 19:30 via Fehrbellin and Neuruppin. At the weekend there is no bus, so it plans the S-Bahn to Hennigsdorf, the train to Kremmen, an 11.2 km ride and the first train back after you have ridden out in the dark.
The crane counts
The chart plots the weekly Tuesday morning counts at the Linum roost from 2018 to 2025, with 2025 in red. Peaks fell between 30 September and 31 October, most often in mid October. The 2025 season dropped early after an outbreak of bird flu.
What it cannot tell you
Timetables can change, and the weekend crane bus of earlier years could still be announced, so check the VBB journey planner on the day. The cranes keep no clock either. Stay on roads and paths, keep out of fields and the nature reserve, and never touch a sick or dead bird.