A real success story

I've had a look and you only have to go back to 2011, at Lakenheath, before I saw my first crane in the UK, one of a pair nesting there. Move on six years and they have undergone a massive growth in their numbers. East Anglia has always been the centre of both a natural colonisation from the near continent as well as the site of a reintroduction programme from captive bred birds. Move on to this Autumn and there is a flock of between 25 and 35 birds regularly seen at Welney. Consequently, I decided that this morning, with the lack of any decent birds around locally, I ought to pay them a visit. Despite heavy traffic I arrived just about on time as the reserve doesn't open till 9.30. A quick chat with the pleasant lady on the reception desk confirmed the flock was still there, so I pottered off to the  Lyle hide to see what was what.
There was no one else in the hide when I got there but the first thing I noticed was how different the reserve was. Normally we go in the winter for the swans when it is flooded. Now it was an arena of grass with the odd pool.

Towards the left out of the hide I could make out a series of grey shapes in the grass. They are a really spectacular and statuesque birds, quite exotic looking for the UK.

The flock of cranes were feeding happily away on the edge of the reserve. Typically, they were some distance away but at least with them standing 4 feet or more tall you could see them well!

For the first 30 minutes or so they didn't move around too much but the flock was quite noisy, trumpeting away. Some would half fly, half jump up into the air when one of their neighbours got a bit too close though. The adults are the ones with the black and white crown, the juveniles are much plainer.

The link below is a video of the flock busy having their breakfast.

The feeding flock

Gradually though, despite the fact it was quite windy, some of them did decide to go for a fly around. It was then that you really get an idea of the size of them, with a massive wingspan and legs and necks sticking out fore and aft. I'm not sure what they were doing, as they would fly around and come back again, but one was clearly a family group with 2 adults and 2 juveniles. Bit of flying practice for the youngsters perhaps?

After the fly around. they would land which in the high wind did not seem to be very easy, and as they came down they almost landed on some of the other birds, creating a bit of an upset in the flock!

The only other bird of note, apart from a few early whooper swans, were the marsh harriers. These are another success story, with their numbers massively increased from the 1970's. Now you see them on many of the "marshy" areas especially in East Anglia. Again, the wind was creating problems for them as they quartered the marsh looking for food, but occasionally one would come quite close to the hide.

Another good day, only one "tick" to add to the yearly tally, but really nice to see these two different birds both doing so well.