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Damon Bridge's blog

Somerset's Cranes coming to the BBC!

Published on January 8, 2018, by Damon Bridge

The wonderful BBC Countryfile are covering the crane story on the Somerset Levels and Moors this coming Sunday - 14th JANUARY.  A few of us spent a wonderful day a week before Christmas with Matt Baker, Anita Rani and the crew tracking down the cranes and witnessing the creative processess of Sean Harris and Jim on Guitar! Intrigued ?....then tune in...   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09p1sqb

 

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Happy Christmas!

Published on December 19, 2017, by Damon Bridge

..And even though I realise this wish might not be to everyone's liking - Here's to a lovely wet Spring 2018 - ensuring lots of nice safe nesting areas for the reintroduced cranes on the wetlands of the South West! 

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Birds of a feather...

Published on October 5, 2017, by Damon Bridge
Flock of cranes - Somerset Sept 2017

  Flocking cranes - Somerset Autumn 2017 - John Crispin.

The autumn is producing some spectacular sights and sounds in Somerset as the cranes, much dispersed through the summer months, noisily flock together to forage across recently harvested barley and maize fields.

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Scores on the Doors, Success on the Moors.

Published on August 24, 2017, by Damon Bridge
Legend, Elle and their 2017 chick in flight.

  Legend, Elle, and their chick in flight. Aug 23rd 2017.

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Strutting on The Tack Piece

Published on March 7, 2017, by Damon Bridge
Monty, Sedge, Oakie, Cotton, Evie and Chip at WWT Slimbridge

The WWT Reserve at Slimbridge is currently proving a fantastic place to witness some pre-season strutting, posturing, and general crane shenanigans!

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Coming to a screen near you! THURSDAY 26th JANUARY

Published on January 19, 2017, by Damon Bridge

Keep an eye out - THURSDAY 26th JAN -  for some fabulous filiming at the West Sedgemoor Reserve.

Join Chris Packham and Damon on a mission to see the cranes come in to roost. 

Here it is on BBC i-Player 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c3ynm

DB

 

 

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Echo-maker

Published on October 20, 2016, by Damon Bridge

 

 

DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES!

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Reward increased to £2,000

Published on October 19, 2016, by Damon Bridge

A private, anonymous reward of £1,000 has been offered, ontop of the £1,000 offered by RSPB, for any information that leads to a conviction for the shooting of the crane, known as Swampy at the end of September this year.  Anybody with information should contact the Avon and Somerset Police quoting crime reference number 5216228321  

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Swampy - Shot Dead

Published on October 18, 2016, by Damon Bridge

I have some very sad news to report.  The body of Swampy, a female crane, released through the Great Crane Project in 2011, was found by a local farmer in a maize field in late September.   The body was handed into the project team, and it was sent, as with any recovered dead crane, for a full post-mortem.   The post mortem found four embedded metallic objects by CT scan, one of which was located through examination and has been identified as gun-shot.  The conclusion is that the most likely cause of death was shooting.  The details hav

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