The Great Crane Project

TONY JACKSON explains how Somerset has been central to the resurgence of an eye catching bird.

- Tony Jackson

A BIRD which vanished as a resident breeding species around 1600 as a result of wetland drainage and hunting, has now made a dramatic come-back... and Somerset has played a key role in its resurgence.

The common crane is a dramatic, eyecatching bird. About four feet tall, grey with an enormous wingspan of up to eight feet, similar in size to a sea-eagle, and a slender black and white neck with a red patch on the top and back of its head.

This amazing bird also has one of the loudest calls of all bird species and can be heard from a distance of three miles. A ground dwelling bird lacking a back toe with which to grip, it is unable to perch in trees.

The return of the cranes to this country began in the late 1970s and early 1980s when a small number of wild cranes appeared on the Norfolk Broads and bred for the first time in the early 1980s. The population grew very slowly, nests were protected, suitable habitats managed and, gradually, these wild cranes started breeding in other parts of East Anglia.

At this point a group of conservation organisations got together to consider re-introduction as a means of securing the future of the crane in the UK and the Somerset Levels and moors were chosen as a suitable release location. As a result the Great Crane Project partnership was established, comprising the RSPB, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, a Norfolk-based organisation with a great deal of experience of crane rearing. The partners worked together to see if it would be feasible to supplement the small British population through re-introduction and in 2009 the team was joined by Viridor Credits Environmental Company who agreed to fund the project for six years.