Cranes

[Barbara Jane]

For three days now these wonderful birds are flying over our house, here in the Bordeaux area, coming from the Artic? and on their way to the South West (Spain- North Africa?) What always amazes me is that not only it is about the same time but always on exactly the same route.
There are hundreds and hundreds of them all talking as they go and all in this wonderful V for victory line. They sometimes re group, looking for better thirmals I suppose and that is quite astonishing as they never seem to colide!
All this of course means the end of the summer and the beginning of the winter. No more sightings until the middle of February, I shall look forward to it!

Barbara Jane

[Margaret]

Ooh Barbara Jane, you are lucky, what a wonderfull sight that must be, all I seem to be getting in my garden at the moment are starlings, it is amusing to watch them as they quarrel over food, but I would love a chance to see your spectacular Cranes.

Margaret

[Kerry L]

Dear Barbara Jane
You make me so jealous! You and Jenny have all the fabulous sightings! At the moment all is quiet here - only pigeons and the robin, although greenfinches are about, I hear but not spotted. Oh and one crow that sounds like an extra from Pirates of the Caribbean - it goes "ARRRRRR"!
Regards, Kerry

[Barbara Jane]

Just seen, through the local papers here, that some of the cranes are stopping off on their way to North Africa, at "Les Landes" an area between Bordeaux and Biaritz. Apparently thet are finding the winter in these parts warm enough for them to stay and don't need to go further. Has this anything to do with global warming?

Barbara Jane

[Jenny]

Barbara Jane - I'm green with envy - cranes are so beautiful. Was lucky enough many many years ago to spend some times on the Austrian-Hungarian border where every house had cranes nesting - noisy, occasionally dodgey from dropping and the odd large twig - but fascinating! It was considered lucky to have cranes nesting on your house and lots of people put up platforms to encourage them!

Did I not read/hear somewhere recently that they're going to try experiment in UK?

[storye_book]

Barbara Jane - I'm green with envy - cranes are so beautiful. Was lucky enough many many years ago to spend some times on the Austrian-Hungarian border where every house had cranes nesting - noisy, occasionally dodgey from dropping and the odd large twig - but fascinating! It was considered lucky to have cranes nesting on your house and lots of people put up platforms to encourage them!

Did I not read/hear somewhere recently that they're going to try experiment in UK?
-----------------------
Yes you did - it's in the latest RSPB members' mag (Winter 2006), page 85. I quote the article in full:

"THE GREAT CRANE PROJECT BEGINS. We are working with Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust to re-establish another breeding population of common cranes in Britain. Cranes were absent as a breeding species for nearly 400 years, because of hunting and the drainage of wetlands. In 1979, a small population recolonised the Norfolk Broads, which shows that cranes can survive and breed successfully here. The Norfolk population, however, remains isolated and vulnerable. Since the crane is a native species to Britain, we believe it should be given the opportunity to once again become a familiar sight. A shortlist of potential release locations has been drawn up, including sites in England, Scotland and Wales, and we are investigating techniques for rearing young cranes. The precise location of releases will be kept confidential during the early stages of the programme, as cranes are sensitive to disturbance. Preparatory work will continue until 2009, when the first releases of birds will take place. the project is supported by Jordans Cereals."

So they're not telling us where, and we won't get any birds till 2009. But there is more up-to-date info at http://www.rspb.org.uk/policy/species/cranes/index.asp

[Barbara Jane]

Jenny

I didn't realize that cranes nested on roof tops. I new storks did but its a first time for cranes! I can image what that would be like if you had a nest
over your head, say, in the bedroom, especially knowing that they talk all the time! Best not I think!

Barbara Jane

[Barbara Jane]

Storye Book

Thank you so much for that very interesting link on Cranes. Fascinating to see that they were once inthe UK and hopefully will be there again in 2009!

Barbara Jane

[storye_book]

Yes, Cranes do currently breed in Norfolk and they do pop up around the country.
Here's a distant and foggy photo I took at Minsmere, Suffolk, a couple of years ago. Oddly enough and maybe typically, they went unnoticed by almost every 'birdwatcher' at the reserve.

hi shamal - that's a beautiful photo - thanks for sharing it with us. so the birdwatchers didn't notice the great big cranes in front of their noses. ha ha.

often i take the bus which passes harewood house and eccup reservoir (north of leeds, yorkshire) and there's frequently a good sighting of red kites between those points. i usually stand up and move about to get a better look, but no-one on the bus takes a blind bit of notice - not even to wonder what i'm looking at. i sometimes thank the bus driver if i get a good sighting - and they're always interested, wanting to know exactly where it was. they seem to take a pride in the kites on their route. perhaps the point is, they have been told all about it.

last night on university challenge, three out of a team of four oxford science students couldn't identify any of four garden tits from colour photos. i guess the problem is ignorance.

[storye_book]

Jenny

I didn't realize that cranes nested on roof tops. I new storks did but its a first time for cranes! I can image what that would be like if you had a nest
over your head, say, in the bedroom, especially knowing that they talk all the time! Best not I think!

Barbara Jane

hi barbara jane -

noisy birds? yes - when i lived on the farm in kent in the seventies we had loads of martins in nests under the eaves, over the bedroom windows - and they used to wake you up at 4am with their burbling and chattering. being a young mother in need of sleep, i objected loudly - fortunately no-one considered removing the nests, though. but since i moved away i have missed those martins, and i've been sad to see people poking the nests out of eaves 'because of the untidy droppings' as they said.

in fact i miss them so much that i'm considering fixing martin nests to my house though it has no eaves. old european writings show people moving away from holland and missing the stork nests on the roofs - there's a famous story (children's book, i think?) called 'wheel on the roof' which recalls that kind of nostalgia.

maybe the point is that wildlife can seem irritating, but once it's part of your life, it's part of you for ever - but not mealworms i hope . . .

[Jenny]

Jenny

I didn't realize that cranes nested on roof tops. I new storks did but its a first time for cranes! I can image what that would be like if you had a nest
over your head, say, in the bedroom, especially knowing that they talk all the time! Best not I think!

Barbara Jane


Barbara Jane - you are quite right - I'm mixing storks and cranes up - most embarrassing when my mother (in her eighties) told me I was wrong :o :o ! However, she also remembers huge flocks of cranes - we just can't remember where! She reminded me that we took loads of photos so all I've got to do is go through 40 plus years of photo-albums - doh! Not before Christmas I think!! :eek:

My apologies - would have replied earlier but this last gale was a bad one for us up here and had power out! Roof is intact (thank God!) but it's ripped up some shrubs and broken three seed feeders and a metal peanut feeder - the latter resembles a boomerang in shape!

[Barbara Jane]

Jenny

I see that we still might have cranes in the UK but we have to wait a little and the site will be secret so as not to disturb.

Sorry to hear about the gales but glad you didn't have too much damage. Here we are just getting into one, so we are closing all shutters. Hope the bird tables will stand the strain ! I wonder where the birds go to when 100 kilometer gales are blowing ?

Barbara Jane

[Jenny]

Just hope I get to live so long as to see the cranes!

Sorry Barbara Jane, can't cope with kilometres - bit ancient, you see! Besides, they make things sound much worse - imagine travelling to hospital (over 113 miles one way)!

In answer to your query, most of the birds head off to the more sheltered gardens below but our sparrows often go to their normal roost in neighbour's very thick, very tall leylandii hedge; the robins seem to forget about territory and get friendly in my holly bush/tree and the wrens are in the some roosters in same holly. It's great watching them all shoot out to feed when the wind dies down and I put food out. I've planted a couple of alders to provide extra cover in future, too.