Damon Bridge's blog

  The Mill Pond at the incubation station, Brandenburg

The three cranes that went wandering last weekend returned on Friday - and the flock is once more made up of 34 birds.  We received no sightings of them whilst apart from the remaining 31 so sadly, we have no idea where they were! This weekend has also seem the flock split at times into smaller groups, which were seen using the thermals created in the unseasonally warm and sunny weather to  explore further afield.

 Hundreds of cranes dropping in to roost...

Beautiful photo of Pepper in flight taken by John Crispin from the River Parret Trail footpath - (with a very long lens, admittedly).

Another wild, unringed crane has turned up in Somerset - seen on Feb 6th near Frome and yesterday (7th ) on Chilton Moor (from the road between near Eddington and Burtle) and then later in the day at Catcott Lows Somerset Wildlife Trust reserve.   Perhaps it will join up with the release birds?  Watch this space!  

  Artificial feeder, decoy crane and potatoes.

All the existing crane Date with Nature (wild wings across Somerset) events are FULLY BOOKED.(Some additional new dates will be added at the start of next week when bookings can re-commence.)   

The RSPB is running six 'Dates with the cranes' - starting on Friday 20 January. These events will include: