Searching for cranes – RSPB Nene Washes

By Olivia Boult (NLOW Natural Heritage & Communities Officer)

Over the past week, I took a trip to both RSPB Ouse Fen and RSPB Nene Washes in search of one of the project’s 25 chosen flagship species, the Common Crane (Grus grus). I’d seen these only once before at Lakenheath Fen a few years ago and was keen to catch another glimpse of them.

Although I was unlucky spotting them at Ouse Fen (catching only mechanical cranes on the neighbouring quarry!), I saw greylag geese, marsh harriers and stonechats.

However, upon arriving at RSPB Nene Washes – at the Eldernell Lane side of the reserve – I soon heard the cranes’ loud, bugling calls and then spotted 8 cranes flying over. Later in the day, I saw another 40 or so in the distance!

The best time to see cranes in the UK is during the winter when they form flocks and you can see them feeding quietly out in the fields. If you’re lucky, you might even catch their courtship dance in the spring, which is how they reinforce their monogamous pair bonds. As the UK’s tallest bird, standing at four-foot tall, their dance shows off their long legs, ruffle feathers and gracefulness. I was enjoying watching them too much to capture them on camera, but you can view a video of them here.

Once common across East Anglia, cranes became extinct in Britain around 1600 as a result of hunting and vast areas of wetland being drained for agriculture. In 1979, three individuals reappeared in the Norfolk broads and bred in 1982. Their numbers have been gradually increasing since then due to reintroduction projects, protection and landscape-scale habitat restoration projects. The UK population is now believed to consist of over 200 birds, with 71 pairs recorded in 2022. They are still on the UK Amber conservation list of birds but it’s an exciting story of how with the right efforts, species can come back. A lot more restoration is needed though until they reach the numbers seen historically and to safeguard their future as a breeding bird in the UK.

As an aside, I couldn’t write a post about my trip to Nene Washes without mentioning the wonderful show put on by five barn owls hunting as the sun set as well as the thousands of lapwing in flight earlier in the day. Take a look at the videos I took here.

I also saw whooper swans, mute swans, oystercatchers, little egret, grey heron, cormorants, kestrels, wigeons, mallards, merlin, snipe, marsh harrier, moorhens, coots, goldfinch, meadow pipits, skylarks, graylag geese, Canada geese, shoveler, shelduck, buzzard, teal, roe deer, muntjac deer, and a pike or another fish jumping out of the river. A long-eared owl was also apparently hiding in some scrub in the copse near to the car park but it was too camouflaged for me to spot!

Approximately a 40 minute drive from the north of the New Life Old West project area, I’d really recommend a visit to RSPB Nene Washes, or alternatively to RSPB Ouse Fen, which is within the project area.