The Common Crane is a rare vagrant to Buckinghamshire and despite reintroduction schemes in the UK in recent years, there were no sightings of this species in 2016 and 2017. So when Warren Claydon found two at Gallows Bridge Farm BBOWT Reserve on 16th May, it was somewhat of a surprise! It was assumed that they would soon move on. However that was not the case and the birds were seen daily until 27th May attracting quite a lot of interest with local birders. Fortunately the fact that the birds were on a nature reserve with excellent hides, birders could visit the hides with little or no disturbance to the birds.
The two birds spent much of the time over the first few days at the far end of the reserve, so with warm sunny days, the views were not great due to the distance and the heat haze. From time to time the birds left the reserve and went onto nearby farmland presumably to feed. As the days went on the pair moved much closer to the hides and were seen to perform their display dance on more than one occasion. It was hoped they might stay and breed, albeit being quite late in the breeding season, but they departed probably overnight or early morning on 28th May.
The following photos courtesy and copyright from the following people. John Edwards (top 2), Graham Smith (middle 2), Rob Cadd (lower 4). Click on the images to view full size.
The pair were constantly close together.
Feeding together.
Parts of the dancing behavior shown in these four photos.
Local birder Rob Cadd spent a considerable amount of time in the hides observing and photographing the Cranes and put together this stunning video :-
.