COMMON
CRANE.
Hyles Moor, Bolton-by-Bowland, Lancashire, UK.
Grid Ref: SD811526 March 16th-17th 2002.
The
first East Lancashire Record.
by Keith Mudd.
My initial thoughts went to Grey Heron when the non-birdwatcher Postlady was describing the ‘grey flamingo’ that she had seen on her round just before returning to the sorting office. My curiosity was more seriously aroused when she insisted that it was taller than a Grey Heron and described it has having ‘a long feathery tail’.
This needed to be checked out and in the afternoon I went to the area with local birdwatcher Brian Shorrock. The habitat is basically wet grasslands dominated by rushes where Curlew, Snipe, Lapwing, and Redshank breed.
After about half-an-hour of unsuccessfully searching this large expanse we were about to leave when one last scan from the track entrance produced a delighted, surprised “Brian, it’s there! It’s a Crane!” We watched it for several minutes at a distance of about 50 metres.
It was nervous and wary and before we could get the telescope set up it flew off and away from us appearing to land about 400 metres away. We returned home to alert local birdwatchers and submit the news to the Birdguides website.
The following morning I returned with my wife and son and soon located it in a similar location to the previous day. From the roadside we were able to observe it at a distance of about 15 metres through 10X40 Zeiss binoculars and take two record photographs. Whilst there we were treated to its bugle call.
After about 10 minutes we moved down the road to join three local birdwatchers that were also enjoying good views from the same farm track entrance as I did yesterday. The bird was about 60 metres away and again seemed uneasy at our presence, flying low away from us just as I was focusing my telescope on it.
Although
it did not appear to break the skyline we could not relocate it despite
searching for about one hour.
OVERALL
IMPRESSION: Long-necked,
long-legged, grey wading bird, much
HEAD
AND NECK: Red
crown; black forehead, chin, throat and front part of
MANTLE AND BACK: Mixture of light brown and light grey.
FOLDED WINGS: Mixture of light brown and light grey.
TAIL: Unable to see due to presence of long, black-tipped, grey wing feathers.
UNDERPARTS: Light grey from lower neck to vent.
BILL: Light coloured.
EYE: Did not record colour.
LEGS: Dark coloured.
VOICE: Called once: a distinctive loud bugle.
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Accepted by the Lancashire Records Panel.
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