Wild Cranes?

There was great surprise when yesterday (Sunday 16th October) three wild cranes were spotted feeding amongst our birds out on the Moors and Levels!  There was slight speculation as to whether these wid birds, without any leg rings, would stick around, or fly away and take all of the somerset cranes with them.  They left, heading South, in late afternoon, without any other cranes in tow, most probably trying to complete a migration that was by now well off course.  These cranes could well be the three which were spotted flying South-West across the Bristol Channel in the Steep Holm and Flat Holm area, reported via the GCP website, providing invaluable information to both the crane project and broader bird community.

In the mean time, the 34 Somerset cranes had been behaving in a manner exactly as wild cranes on the continent do - Feeding on old or harvested crop areas for part of the day, and supplementing their feeding by making short flights to areas of high insect activity.  This is really positive, meaning that the younger 2011 birds have been learning from the older birds, and not from the 'crane parents', a much more natural process.

Bugling Cranes on Aller Moor. 
Image courtesy of Nick Upton

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.