Cookie

Profile Picture and Leg Ring Combination Code

• Green
• Black
• Yellow

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:

June 2013: Cookie is the smallest of the 2013 cohort.   However,  what Cookie lacks in size, she certainly makes up for in speed and agility when avoiding the more aggressive birds. She is a lone bird, her sibling egg being left within the nest in Germany for her parents to rear.  September 2013: Cookie lost out to Green White in the growing competition though - who is now the smallest.  Once in Somerset she has become a good solid member of the group.   January 2014:  Cookie was released in mid September and quickly integrated with the older birds, spending the autumn foraging with the flock on West Sedgemoor, along the Stoke St. Gregory ridge, and the winter on splashy pasture land on Stanmoor near the village of Stoke St. Gregory. The deep and prolonged flooding that affected the Levels and Moors through the winter of 2013/14 seemed to have little effect on the new cohorts' welfare or integration. January 2015: Cookie spent all of 2014 as an integral part of the non-breeding and non-moulting flock on the Levels and Moors and towards the tail end of the year was frequently seen feeding in with a group on Southlake and Aller Moors to the west of Langport. July 2015: The spring of 2015 saw Cookie take a short trip to Slimbridge along with a number of her cohort and then return to  remain part of the non-breeding flock on the Somerset moors, spending a lot of time on Northmoor (Aller), Northmoor near East Lyng and West Sedgemoor. February 2016:  Cookie spent all the autumn and most of the first part of the winter on the Somerset Levels and Moors but then headed to Slimbridge in January where she has remained.  She does appear to be paired up with any particular bird - but the onset of the Spring could change all this!  Nov 17:   Remained in Somerset and was seen with Alexander in February and March there was no breeding attempt.  She remains with the flock.   Sept 18:   Remained at WWT Slimbridge but did not make a breeding attempt.    Sept 2019:   No evidence of pairing but observed with the flock on Aller moor in late August.      2020:   Cookie was not accounted for during the spring but recorded in Dorset with Pepe in August – appears to be paired with Pepe and may have had a breeding attempt.  Also observed regularly at WWT Slimbridge during the Autumn.   Sept 2021:  There was no news of Cookie and Pepe during the breeding season until they returned to Slimbridge with 2 fledged juveniles in August.    One of the juveniles did not survive. It is possible that they nested at a site in Dorset as they had been recorded in that county in 2020. They have been observed at WWT Slimbridge in September.   Autumn 2022: Cookie and Pepe remained at WWT Slimbridge over the winter and are assumed to be the pair known to have returned to their breeding site of last year in Dorset.  No more information until they returned to Slimbridge without juveniles.  They have been observed there during the Autumn.                     

Crane Champions

Photos of Cookie

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