Common Crane - Middleton Moor

 An exciting day at Middleton with good numbers of common migrants but the star bird was a Common Crane which we believe is just the third record for the site.

It usual for the gulls to spook periodically often for no apparent reason but I always check the sky incase a raptor has scared them. This happened yesterday and I looked up to see a Coomon Crane no more than 100m above me. It did a nice fly past then started to circle, quickly gaining height until it was just visible with the naked eye then drifted off south. A fantastic sight and as breeding numbers continue to increase in Norfolk and Linconlshire, reported as 87 pairs last year, it may become a commoner site.

Common Crane

Other birds seen included both Yellow and White Wagtail (the Continental counterpart of our Pied) and Garden Warbler as well as Wheatears and Common Redstart that have been around for several days.

White and Yellow Wagtails

Finally I found a 1st winter Caspian Gull amongst the gulls which still number about 60 Lesser Black-backed and up to 100 Common.

Caspian Gull - first winter

Common Cranes over Beeley Moor!

After almost a week of cold and mist weather on the moors it felt a lot more Spring like this morning. After male Ring Ouzel and singing male Redstart we had already had a good morning when two Common Cranes came over the moor just before 10am and circled close to Whitesprings plantation gaining height before drifting off in the Farley/ Matlock direction. They were subsequently seen over Loscoe Dam.
With the increase in the Norfolk population and birds regularly around Thorne Moors in South Yorkshire it is surprising that there are still less than twenty records in Derbyshire.
A Tree Pipit singing on the edge of the plantation as we left was another first for the year.

Common Cranes