Blogs

 White Yellow Black - taking off

On Tuesday we released the final batch of 17 cranes into the Levels & Moors.

 Leading the group out of the pens

 White Yellow Black - taking off

On Tuesday we released the final batch of 17 cranes into the Levels & Moors.

 Leading the group out of the pens

Spent a while this morning in the tractor, preparing the ground in readiness for contractors to start work creating a potential crane breeding zone at the heart of the West Sedgemoor RSPB reserve.

 The topper

After their successful journey to the Levels earlier this week I am delighted to announce that all of this year's chicks now have their very own profile on the website. We will keep these updated as time goes on. At the moment most of the birds are just known by their colour ring combination but as in previous years, we will invite local schools to name and champion each bird. Who knows what weird and wonderful names they will come up with?

After their successful journey to the Levels earlier this week I am delighted to announce that all of this year's chicks now have their very own profile on the website. We will keep these updated as time goes on. At the moment most of the birds are just known by their colour ring combination but as in previous years, we will invite local schools to name and champion each bird. Who knows what weird and wonderful names they will come up with?

After an early start yesterday morning to help transport the crane chicks from Slimbridge to the Somerset Levels, Damon was up at the crack of dawn again, this time to meet a film crew from the BBC for a live outside broadcast.

I am not always at my best in the morning and a 4 am start seemed rather unsociable but Damon and I headed up from Somerset to meet the Slimbridge team with their very special consignment. After 3 months of dedication and hard work from the 'surrogate crane parents' the chicks made the 70 mile trip down the M5 to their secret Somerset location.

Cranes in transit!

A couple of weeks ago Damon was interviewed about the 'Great Crane Project' for  the BBC Wildlife Magazine Podcast. Listen to him give an update on the project and his aspirations for the future of Cranes on the Somerset Levels. http://www.discoverwildlife.com/podcasts

Somerset Artworks (SAW) and the Great Crane Project are delighted to announce the appointment of artist Sarah Butterworth

Had a fabulous day yesterday with a lovely bunch of volunteers and RSPB staff getting the 'top-nets' onto the crane aviary on the Somerset Levels and Moors. 

Firstly a tangled mess of net - that had been stored out on site, within a tarpaulin, but under 1m of water at the height of the winter flood.  It had also, rather unpleasantly had been used by Mink as a latrine and a store of half-eaten duck eggs and bits of dead coot and mallard.