Sedge

Profile Picture and Leg Ring Combination Code

• White
• Yellow
• Red

What is this?

Each crane has a unique combination of 3 coloured rings on their right leg. This marking code helps to identify the crane in the wild.

Character profile:

Summer 2010: Sedge was the last egg to be collected in Germany.  We were rapidly running out of options for collection in a particular area on the last day that we could before transportation to UK and Beate from the Vielfalt Biosphere team came up trumps with a fantastic nest site. The egg and now the bird has become known as Beate's Bird and has also developed the nickname Sedge.  Sedge is one the last to hatch and the baby of the bunch this year, and has turned into a very dark and attractive bird. She is high ranking, good-natured, calm and inquisitive, and is prepared to defend herself if provoked. She has no siblings.  September 2010:  Sedge has formed an allegiance with Regina and Monty and these three birds together are behaving very independently to the rest of the group.  They now roost at an alternative location at night, and are often feeding in different areas to the others during the day. A very tight bond seems to exist between them and they are rarely seen apart.  Sedge's satellite tag helped us establish exactly where she was roosting. October 2010: Her group seems to have rejoined the group roosting at night in the release enclosure. They are still seen as a separate tight-knit group during the day. They have been exploring the farthest out of all the cranes and are usually the first to find new areas to explore. November 2010: Sedge and her group have recently joined Clarence’s group and all 20 birds are usually seen flying and foraging everywhere together. November 2010: In the last few days the 3 amigos were alone again, flying around finding new decoys we had put out. They found the maize stubbles for the rest of the cranes and since then it has become the favourite food for the group! Sedge is now sticking with Clarence’s group again, and Regina and Monty have been flying around as a duo. January 2011: Sedge has been part of the flock during the winter, and has not strayed off on her own at any stage. She remains a very dark and more brown than grey-looking bird, unlike many of the others.  It will be interesting to see if this continues in her adult plumage colouration. March 2011:  Sedge is still part of the main flock and as with Monty and Regina we are still waiting to see if the three amigos will reform.  Regarding her unusual dark colouration when young, now that she is moulting, we can see that she is becoming the same colour as the other cranes. September 2011:  Sedge is now well on her way to becoming fully grown, and has some of her stunning adult plumage, from the red head to the bold white neck stripe, and a beautiful bustle.  She isn’t the most confident bird, and seems to be content not being at the centre of the action. June 2012: Sedge and three other cranes (Ruby, Monty and Beatrice) flew up to Slimbridge in Mid May.   They then headed back to Somerset in the last week of May. Sedge then returned to Slimbridge shortly after with Ruby, Monty and Chris. December 2012: Having spent all summer at Slimbridge, Sedge returned to the Levels and Moors along with Ruby, Monty, and Chris on Dec 13th. January 2013: Sedge headed back up to Slimbridge on Jan 28th along with Ruby, Monty and Chris. April 2013: Sedge was observed helping nestbuild at Slimbridge along with Monty, Chris and Ruby.  She was chased away frequently by Monty and Chris though.  July 2013: Sedge remained at Slimbridge throughout the summer and was often in the company of Ruby and Bart.  However when Ruby and Bart went into moult in June, she didn't and she became a bit of a loner for a while. By the end of July, with the moult over and Bart missing, she formed a strong bond with Ruby and the pair of girls would seem to be inseparable.  September 2013: Bart reappeared in August and the three bird - Sedge, Bart and Ruby flew back to Somerset. January 2014: Sedge didn't hang around in Somerset long. Whilst she was there she seemed to be the cause a lot of upset amongst the main flock with much bugling, fighting, and general rumpus.  Back at Slimbridge things didn't seem much more settled either with a lot of strutting and displaying between Sedge and other 2 females  - Ruby and Wendy.  Sedge does appear to be a very dominant bird and things could get rather interesting through the Spring!  July 2014:  In early April Sedge paired up with Minnie  - a 2010 cohort male.   No breeding attempt was made however – and the pair remain together in July 2014. July 2015: We all felt that Sedge would make a breeding attempt at Slimbridge in spring 2015 with Minnie, and were surprised when Minnie paired with Wendy and Sedge paired up with Willow – a 2012 Male half her age – a toy boy!  No breeding attempt was made, although some tentative nest-building activity was seen, but usually in the company of another pair – Chris and Monty who seemed to be occupying the same territory.  We hope that 2016 will be the year that Sedge makes a definitive breeding attempt. February 2016:  She remained at Slimbridge all winter - finger's crossed for the next few months! July 16: Remained at Slimbridge through the winter and spring. Paired with Monty and made a short-lived attempt with one egg, laid in the Rushy Pen area which was abandoned after 1 day. A second attempt was made in early May with two eggs. One was infertile the other hatched on 2 nd June and was reared by the parents but died of liver and lung disease after 14 days.Nov 2017 Remained at Slimbridge through the winter and spring but her partnership with Monty was usurped by Chip who chased her off many times.  She was seen in Somerset at one point but eventually was reunited with Monty in May but no breeding observed.  She has remained at Slimbridge. Sept 2018:   Remained at WWT Slimbridge through the winter and spring.  Observed nest building on Rushy Pen on  20th April and laid first egg on 29th April.  Reported having two eggs on 2nd May.   Hatching took place 30th May.  The juvenile didn’t thrive, however, and was found to be sickly and had to be put down on 6th August.   Sept 2019:  Remained at WWT Slimbridge through the winter and spring. She was chased away from her one time mate Monty by another female, Evie, and remained unpaired all year.        Sept 2020:   Sedge remained at WWT Slimbridge but there was no evidence of her either pairing or making a breeding attempt.  Sedge has been observed with the flock at Slimbridge during the Autumn.    Sept 2021:   At WWT Slimbridge on 4th May Sedge and her unringed partner were reported showing signs of incubating in an area where another pair of cranes were nesting - after chasing them off.   There was no evidence of eggs or chicks.  The pair were observed at Slimbridge in September.   Autumn 2022:  Sedge was seen at Slimbridge throughout the year but no evidence of a mate or a breeding attempt was observed.   She remains with the small flock at Slimbridge.                 

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