Thursday, April 09, 2009

Common Cranes! House tick no. 128!


Well, its been some time coming but I knew they would fall in the end. We've had cranes pretty much in residence in the area for at least a year. Two in particular are not infrequently reported from the Nene Washes and Woodwalton Fen. Our house lies pretty much slap between these two large areas and I've been banging on for ages about how they must be flying over the house! Well, at last I've caught them! I was just nipping out to the bins when I saw two shapes in the sky. Immediately recognising they were moving far too slowly for Cormorants, they then banked and even at distance I knew immediately what they were. I dashed in to the kitchen (nearest pair of bins) and once I realised they were heading straight for me, back in to the house, upstairs to the office, grab the camera and hanging out of the bathroom window got a couple of record shots. Grand stuff!

2 comments:

DorsetDipper said...

there's been some suggestions that these birds aren't wholly wild - any views?

Steve said...

I presume you're referring to the origin of the original Norfolk birds about 20 years ago. We dont know where those birds came from. But they have been breeding andf producing young for many years which I presume are the birds wandering around the UK. We do also get overshoots from the continent. They are certainly not from the newly established release scheme in Somerset as these two birds in our area (for 18+ months) pre-date the captive bird release scheme in the SW.