Cranes

[tinca]

had a walk round our local rspb reserve on the fen today and saw all five of the resident cranes never seen them beforeand as they normaly are only seen in pairs i was well pleased

[fairplay]

Hi Tinka,

Would this be Lakenheath ? Hope to visit later this year with our local RSPB group.

Neil.

[aeshna5]

In the winter Cranes form flocks. Obviously not a huge number in the UK, but a few weekends ago I was in France + saw several large flocks, including 1 of c100 birds feeding in a field.

[rlchew]

I think Cranes are magnificent birds and it is great to see them albeit in small and hopefully increasing numbers in the UK.

There has been a small group in north east Norfolk for several years now and they have just started breeding further south at the RSPB reserve in Lakenheath Fen.

2009 was definitely a Crane year for me.

In May and June I saw several birds in northern Finland (they breed in Scandinavia), I saw several thousand at Laguna de Gallocanta in Aragon, Spain in November (their traditional stop over point before moving south to winter in Extremadura, Spain) and on Boxing Day I saw 17 come in to roost against a sunset sky at Stubb Mill, Hickling in Norfolk.

Richard

[tinca]

Yes it was the lakenheath reserve always a lot to see heard the bitterns while i was there but didnt see any unlike someone who i was talking to who saw 2. the best time to see the is when the water round the reed beds has frozen as they tend to fly more 9so i was told)