Settling in nicely

Since the excitment of moving the cranes down to their new release enclosure things have been a lot calmer. The birds seem to really love their new surroundings and have been spending a lot of their time foraging about, finding new things to eat amongst the wealth of insect fauna that is surrounding them! A lot of holes in the peat have been appearing all over the place as well, as the birds love to hunt around digging up roots. Many of the things they discover also get used as playthings to throw about and dance around before they are finally eaten!

Playing with a feather

As the days pass the birds seem to have ever stronger flights and the majority have mastered controlled take-offs and landings, looking much more graceful than some of the previous clumsy attempts which often ended in crashes into one another!

As Roland said in his last blog, we are all anxious about the birds well being in the next stage of the release process, and we are doing a lot of planning, but for now we are enjoying the calm amongst the group. Here are some more pictures of the birds before they make their way into the big wide world!

Rooting around for food

- Amy

About the author

Amy King and Harry Nevard are the 2011 crane parents and their roles are to rear and nurture the young cranes to adulthood. Amy has previously worked on the cranes in 2010 and Harry has worked with Sarus and Brolgas in Australia and cranes and crakes at Pensthorpe. Prior to Harry's involvement Roland Digby worked on the cranes for the first year of the project.