Monday 6 May 2013

Crane!

6th May - another early morning visit, though a bit later today - well it is bank holiday!  I was on site about 7:30am on yet another lovely sunny morning.  2 Common Sands and 2 LRPs were the only waders visible, so I walked to the meadow.  This has been fairly unproductive this year (apart from the Avocet!), so I was pleased to see a nice male Wheatear - my first of the year here.  It looked good for Greenland Wheatear, being quite orange on the breast, tall and pot-bellied with thickish legs.  I struggled to get a record shot in focus due to the heat haze, even at this time, but here it is:


I continued my walk to the eastern side, enjoying the warbler song, but still no Cuckoo!  I also hung around watching the Common Terns in case a Black appeared, as they seemed to be on the move in other areas today, but no luck.  So I walked back round to the western bank, where Alan S and Kim D were sitting.  We had a chat saying that something might well drop in today and as we spoke, I put my bins on a large bird flapping over the base of the spit towards us and suddenly exclaimed, "Crane!".  A lovely adult Crane was flying over fairly low from the east.  It looked to be going straight over, but then suddenly banked and started to circle over the car park area.  This gave me an opportunity to grab a record shot as it circled through the tree line from where we were watching.  I also scoped the bird to see whether I could see any colour rings on its legs, which might indicate Somerset origin, but they looked clean.  After a few minutes, it suddenly reverted to its westward path and flew off - fantastic and another patch tick!

real life hand held camera

Cropped and pixilated

Real life through the trees

Cropped and pixilated
After the Crane departed, so did I, but whilst driving back towards Marlow, I saw the bird again - it was flying distantly over the centre of Marlow going roughly WNW being followed by a couple of (tiny!) Red Kites.  This was about 9:15am.  At about 10:45am, presumably the same bird was seen on this flight path near Dorchester Oxford.  I can't believe it took it an hour and a half to get there though, so did it land somewhere in the meantime?  A great morning - Greenshank flew in after I left, but that'll have to wait.

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