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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

On a quiet, still morning a week ago, four conservationists hid, crouched in the grasses and obscured by hawthorn hedges as the morning mist formed in the first light of dawn. After a wait of around an hour, a pair of cranes and their eight week old chick crept steadily from their night-time roost, stealthily and nervously walking out of the thick cover of reeds onto a short drove road.  From here they walked much more quickly out into an open field, recently grazed, gleaning early-morning insect morsels from the rush tops.