European crane re-introduction

European cranes are winning back their old breeding-grounds, with the help of re-introductions :
Wildlife Extra News - Common crane first nesting attempt in southern England for more than 400 years

 

More information and video here Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) - Cranes at Slimbridge and details here The first of the Great Crane Project birds display nesting behaviour! | The Great Crane Project

The pair are Monty and Chris who were raised at Slimbridge in 2010 from eggs brought from Germany. They were then released in Somerset some distance away. The main flock remains there, but a few birds have visited Slimbridge since that time. My photo posted earlier this year shows them on the far side of Tack Piece, but they are now nesting right in front of one of the hides!

Today there are 9 of the released birds at Slimbridge, and an unringed bird has also been seen recently.

Alan

 

Very encouraging. Lets hope the weather gives them a break if it becomes a serious nesting attempt.

I used to see Cranes occassionally at Hickling Broad in Norfolk- I think they nested there though it was all very hush-hush. There is a small colony centred there now. Maybe the unringed bird at Slimbridge has come over from there.

 

Very good news . I wonder if the presence of a group of European cranes ( from earlier hand-rearing ) in the large Back from the Brink enclosure has helped to attract the birds to Slimbridge from Somerset .

 

I hadn't thought of that, but it is possible - the cranes are sometimes seen on the South Finger, near the pinioned birds.
I wondered if it was a little 'migration' back to where they were reared. The website I mentioned previously states that the older birds back in Somerset have paired up, but it has not reported nest building there yet.

There are certainly some vagrants around in the UK, that's how the Norfolk & Suffolk birds arrived. I guess that birds at Kielder may have come from Scandinavia, which is quite possibly also the source of the unringed bird(s) at Slimbridge and the Somerset Levels.


Alan

 

In the 1980-ties when European cranes were much rarer as they are now, I remember that during the Autum-wandering period large groups ( up to 100 I've counted sometimes ! ) heared the cranes at the crane breeding-station at Walsrode ( Germany ) -not only European were calling to the wild birds but also the other species like Sandhill, sarus, black-necked, Red-crowned etc. - and the wild birdnresponded to them and circled normaly a few times in the air above the breeding-centre before they went further south !

 

I visited Slimbridge today, there are still 2 cranes around but the nesting attempt petered out. They built the nest and mated a couple of times but then lost interest - a coot has taken over the nest.
However the volunteer I spoke to said that they didn't expect any real breeding attempts until 2015, so it is hardly a surprise that such young birds didn't manage to do much this year.
I had a frustrating morning because I only caught a distant glimpse of the cranes. At 2pm I was about to leave, but I went back to the hide by the nest site as my last chance. One of the cranes was on the far side of Tack Piece but walking towards the hide. I sat beside the door and listened to the volunteer's talk to visitors outside the hide. By the time he finished, the crane was bathing enthusiastically just behind the nest site and I was shooting photos as fast as I could . I did find time to stick my head out of the doorway and say in a stage whisper 'one of them is having a bath in front of the hide' so that people could come in to see it for themselves
Photos downloading now

Alan

 

I was at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire last weekend and there were two there (a pair?) I did not see them or know if they are breeding or are just visiting. They(same or different birds?) also visit Lakenheath reserve.

At Pensthorpe Waterfowl Park in Norfolk, there is also a wild male Crane paired wih a captive, but free-flying female.

 

The crane is Monty, the male of the pair. It turns out that yesterday, when I took the photo, was his third birthday (or should it be hatchday?). A batch of 10 eggs from Germany should have arrived at Slimbridge by now, to start this year's work.

Alan

 

Big news released today, Monty and Chris have at least one egg in a new nest in the Rushy Pen
There is a webcam, but there is nothing visible as I type this, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) - Cranes at Slimbridge

Alan

Video here WWT: 24 hour security for western Britain's first crane egg - YouTube

 

Article about the UK-cranes :
Wildlife Extra News - 24 hour guard for western Britain's first crane egg in four centuries

 

I liked the 'school reports' on these two individual Cranes when they were younger!

The video obviously contains a big emphasis on SECURITY- to deter any would-be eggers from bothering to try.

Hope this succeeds but as they said, they are still young birds as yet.

 

I popped into Slimbridge today and saw the crane pair changing over incubation. The new nest site is less exposed than the previous one and everything seems to be going well so far, but there are many things that could yet go wrong.
Actually I think that it is very encouraging that such young birds have got as far as this.

Alan

 

Bad news released today: the pair of cranes at Slimbridge hatched a chick last week, but it did not survive for long Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) - WWT news
I guessed this had happened as I had seen nothing on the webcam and when I visited on Saturday there was nothing to be seen in the Rushy crane-wise. A failed first breeding attempt is hardly a surprise and there is every hope for the future. On the positive side, I had the great pleasure of watching five of the reintroduced cranes from the Zeiss hide and hearing them call together.

Alan

 

More about the sad news :
Wildlife Extra News - Fist wild crane chick in Western Britain for 400 years has died

 

The latest population model of the UK's reintroduced European cranes, published by scientists at the University of Exeter, WWT and RSPB, has found that within 50 years the number of breeding cranes in the UK is likely to see an increase of about 50%. That means that there could be as many as 275 breeding pairs by the end of this timeframe. The challenge now is to ensure that there is enough suitable wetland habitat available for the birds to breed safely.

A full article about this news is included below:
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-cranes.html

 

Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps it is useful to tie in this thread with the more recent news on European crane reintroduction and the Slimbridge Trust breeding program????

 

The Crane Project results for 2016 gave a number of 160 cranes for the UK then.
Out of these 93 were imported from elsewhere.

I do wonder what the number should be right now.

LINK: https://phys.org/news/2016-11-fake-crane-birds-britain.html#nRlv

 

I think only 4 were fledged in 2017 due to the dry spring and consequent lack of breeding attempts. A lot more this year according to the Crane Project June update. It has good details although they won't know the full tally of fledged young until later in the season. I don't know how many deaths(of adults) there have been since 2016 though.