Great news! Two pairs of cranes at our Lakenheath Fen nature reserve have well-grown young. One of these is capable of quite decent flight and the other is almost there - fingers crossed!
And this is at a site which was a carrot field only about 14 years ago! That's some turn-around.
There's been a small population of cranes in the Norfolk Broads for many years but the birds are now slowly making a break for other wetland sites and it's great to have them at Lakenheath which is already one of the most wonderfully satisfying wetlands to visit - cranes, bitterns, marsh harriers and bearded tits as well as a small number of pairs of the very rare and elusive golden oriole. And those are just some of the birds - there are plenty of others and plenty of other wetland wildlife too.
Cranes aren't incredibly rare or threatened in a European context - after years of decline, most European populations are increasing. But there aren't very many of them nesting in western Europe and there ought to be! Cranes were once common in the UK - the number of place names such as Cranfield, Cranbrook etc demonstrate that - but they were wiped out centuries ago by habitat loss and hunting. Now we are able to put back the habitat and conditions that cranes like, in places such as the Norfolk Broads, Lakenheath, Otmoor, the Somerset Levels and Moors and further afield on Anglesey, Mersehead, Loch of Strathbeg and the Flow Country, then let's hope that cranes find all these sites.
The cranes haven't been very quick at expanding their ranges to date so we are planning to give them a hand too. I've just received a begging letter from the RSPB (as a Life Member my name is in the system so I sometimes get letters from myself!) asking for support for our crane appeal so that we can reintroduce cranes into a secret location on the Somerset Levels and Moors.
I was able to visit the site where the release will take place a few weeks ago. Having grown up in Bristol and north Somerset I know the Levels well, and love them to bits. On a beautiful summer evening I walked across a wetland seeing snipe, hearing a distant curlew, and soaking up the beauty of this special landscape. I was with Damon Bridge who is our Project Manager for the Great Crane project. We talked about the challenges ahead in the reintroduction project but also about how wonderful it would be to see cranes dancing in courtship display, see them flapping slowly across this unique landscape and hear their bugling calls ringing out over the Somerset wetlands.
The Levels are a bit like The Fens (but to my biased eye, much, much nicer!) - flat wetlands divided into fields by ditches rather than fences or hedges, much of the area is at or below sea level, and the human population lives in some fear of flooding that could damage farming, property and lives. There are differences too - the Levels are divided by rows of hills - The Mendips to the north and The Poldens further south. And then there is the emblematic Glastonbury Tor sticking up from the flat landscape. In this flat wetland King Alfred planned his 9th century defeat of the Danes and there must have been stacks of cranes living in Somerset then.
In my youth, not quite as long ago as King Alfred, we regularly visited the Levels to see the landscape, watch the birds and (don't tell anyone) sometimes to buy peat for the garden! These are peaty wetlands and our nature reserve at Ham Wall, which now has breeding bitterns, has been created on an old peat works. Now the RSPB, Natural England and the Somerset Wildlife Trust are recreating wetlands here and wildlife is coming back.
Cranes might get back to the Levels on their own - but if they do, then it will almost certainly take a very long time. We can give them a hand, just as we gave red kites and sea eagles a hand, and just as we are giving corncrakes and cirl buntings a hand now. We're putting the right habitats back and some of the wildlife, the water voles, the dragonflies and many of the plants, will rush back unaided, but the cranes need our help and I feel very happy that we are going to give them a hand. So happy, that when I finish writing this, I will donate £50 to our Great Crane Project Appeal myself.
The Great Crane Project is a joint project with the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust. We've already secured a grant of £700k from Viridor Credits Environment Company and that covers about half the total cost of the 6+-year programme. I hope you'll feel able to support this work too - and if you do then thank you very much, we'll spend it well. Now, where are my credit cards?
Hi. I live near the Levels and I'm really interested in theis project. I read a book "Cranes Flying South" when I was a child, and the news about this project grabbed my attention. I have been to see the Cranes School at Slimbridge and I have already donated money to the Somerset Levels project. What I want to know is, when the project really gets going, are we going to have a blog dedicated to it like there is at Loch Garten, Mull Eagles etc. OR are there enough interested people to form a group on this forum? I'd love to be more involved eventually.
Mozziecat - that's a very good point. I will ask around. I think it would be a good idea.