Midnight

Profile Picture and Leg Ring Combination Code

• Blue
• Red
• Blue

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:

September 2012: Midnight is the sibling and companion of Chocolo, and is the submissive one of what is quite a naughty pair of brothers.  At Slimbridge they worked together as a pair ganging up on birds and continually playing together in the water channel with food and plants. When you saw one of them, you could always guarantee the other would not be far away. This behaviour has continued down in the release enclosure in Somerset, with the duo still sticking together and causing the odd altercation.  January 2013: As autumn turned to winter, the cranes began to flock together to look for food, which they found in plentiful supply in the form of maize left in fields from the harvest.  All 48 have been spending most of their time either feeding in the maize stubble or on Stanmoor, completely unperturbed by the surrounding floodwater.  January 2014: 2013 was a largely uneventful and quiet year for Midnight, the most exciting thing that happened was the arrival of the new batch of cranes in the autumn. The spring and summer were spent largely on Aller Moor and West Sedgemoor, with the autumn spent feeding on the Stoke St. Gregory Ridge, and Stanmoor, and the winter flood period on pasture land on Stanmoor along with the majority of the other cranes.  July 2015: Spring of 2014 saw Midnight take a short trip to Slimbridge for a half of the month and then take a visit to the Cotswold water park along with Chocolo, Gemma, and Maple.  He was flew all the way to Shropshire for a couple of days in May along with Gemma – who he might have started to pair up with.   However, for the rest of the year, he remained on the Somerset Levels and Moors.  In early spring 2015 Midnight disappeared and has not been seen since.  Gemma has also been missing for the same period  and it is possible that the pair have been making a breeding attempt somewhere.  2015 is also the summer that Midnight is due to moult, so it is possible that he is moulting somewhere and will turn up soon. September 2015: Midnight did indeed turn up... with Gemma and a new chick!  The pair bred on private land in Wiltshire with the chick fledging in August.  Well done Gemma and Midnight - fanatastic work! February 2016: The pair and their chick remained on the Somerset Levels and Moors through the winter. At some point they will have to chase their chick away and get down to breeding again. July 16: Remained with Gemma on the Somerset Levels and Moors with their chick through the late winter and returned to last year’s nesting area in Wiltshire in late March, initially with the chick but later just as a pair. Confirmed as incubating in April but outcome yet to be confirmed. Sep 2016: Although Gemma and chick turned up back on the Somerset Levels, there has, so far, been no sign of Midnight.  It is hoped he will reappear soon.  Nov 17  Still no sign of Midnight therefore he is missing presumed dead.

Crane Champions

Photos of Midnight

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