Cranes on Aller Moor

  Decoy cranes in Spring barley and barley stubble

For the last few days, both last year's and this year's cranes have turned up in one large flock of 33 birds on Aller Moor,  - See sightings pages for details - and have been feeding around some plots of spring barley left unharvested for them by local farmers.  These areas of feed crops were left to go over and fall to the ground for the cranes to provide some supplementary feed through the autumn and into the winter.   The barley has to be left standing well after it is due to be harvested to allow the grain to fall to the ground, as the cranes do not usually feed on standing crops.   The farmer has also planted a couple of plots of maize within existing farmland bird-cover plots that will provide plenty of nutritious seed later in the autumn. 

  The growing maize.....

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.