Common Crane

Dave and I travelled down to Gloucester on Sunday, on our way to photograph some Hawfinches, and with time on our hands we decided to call in at Slimbridge in the hope of seeing free flying Common Cranes.

Slimbridge on a Bank Holiday Sunday sounds a bit risky and having found the car park nearly full when we arrived, things did not look very promising. Fortunately most people were in the visitors centre or around the captive birds area. We headed for the Martin Smith Hide and had only one other person sharing it with us. After scanning the distant fields we thought we had dipped the cranes but then Dave spotted them about thirty yards from the hide. These are not small birds and I am not sure why it took us so long to find them. Still three birds, two adult and one juvenile was a good start.

A quick check on the project website (The Great Crane Project) enables to you identify the individuals from the colour rings on their legs. The two adults are Willow the male and Buttercup the female. This looks like a new pairing with neither of them having bred before. They usually start to breed at about four years. Willow is four but Buttercup is a 2013 bird so may be a bit young. However whilst we were watching she was having a good go at nest building, in the reeds, in front of the hide.

That leaves the question of who the Juvenile is. It is probaly a 2016 bird and as such could be one of the first chicks born in the wild in this country for about 400 years. It's just a bit odd that it hasn't been caught and ringed yet.

Willow stretching his wings They can have a wingspan of eight feet, even bigger than a White-tailed Eagle

And patrolling the nest building area

There was also a slightly alien looking Little Egret in the pond.

Common Crane

I haven't put a blog up for the past week or so. There have been plenty of birding opportunities  and I have seen some good birds but I am having one of those spells when you just don't seem to be able to take a decent picture.

Tuesday last week Dave and I made a return visit to Dungeness. I had managed to miss the White-winged Black Tern when we visited the previous week and with nothing else to chase we decided to give it another go. It was on the ARC pit and sitting on exactly the same island as the Black tern we had seen on the last visit.

It was not close enough for a good picture but there could be no doubt on the identification. It as lacking the dark breast patch evident on the Black Tern and as it flew off there was a clear view of the white rump.

White-winged Black Tern

with the all important white rump

This week I had planned a trip down to Slimbridge to see the Cranes and with a Glossy Ibis reported at Ham Wall it looked like an interesting if somewhat long trip. I should have gone Monday but when I got up at five o'clock the weather outside was awful and with the promise of better weather on the Tuesday I decided to put it off for a day. Tuesday and the weather was even worse but I decided to go anyway. Unfortunately so did the Ibis. It had been giving good views on the Monday but despite three hours of searching I could find no sign of it, nor has it been reported since. I will put that miss down to the BBC weather forecast yet again. All I managed to see at Ham Wall was a Marsh Harrier.

Marsh Harrier

Fortunately the Common Cranes were showing at Slimbridge. There were four visible in the fields to the north of the wetland centre although they were all some way off. At first I though that I would not be able to get a picture but the rain had cleared the air and when the sun came out I got a distant shot.

Common Cranes - 500mm lens 1.4 extender and 1.6 camera multiplier

A crop of the above shot

With these birds being barely visible to the naked eye I was quite pleased to walk away with this shot. Given the proportions of the two birds in the picture this looks as though it could be parent and fledgling. If so it is one of the first free born and free flying Common Cranes fledged in this country for 400 years. On the other hand it could just be a small adult!

For interest hear is a shot of one of the captive Common Cranes from inside the wetland centre.

Captive Common Crane

There was also a Kingfisher showing well from one of the hides. I didn't want to miss the cranes so I just grabbed a few quick shots with the intention of going back later. I did, but of course by then the Kingfisher had gone missing.

Finally I had a quick trip down to the Ferry Pool at Pagham Harbour this morning to see if the Grey Phalarope was still there. Most people were searching for the Pectoral Sandpiper but without any success. I was quite pleased that I had seen it when it first arrived at the North Wall (see here).

The Phalarope was there but as usual it was right at the back of the pool. It kept making a purposeful approach along the southern edge of the pool but every time it looked like coming into range of the camera it would fly back to the far corner. I managed a record shot, during one of the brief breaks in the rain, but it's not very good.

So some good birds but not many good pictures. Lets hope for a return to some sunny autumn weather next week.