Britain enjoying the crane attraction

After centuries of absence, these spectacular birds have firmly returned to England, a remarkable conservation success

- DAVID TOMLINSON

Few sounds in nature are more exciting and uplifting than the bugling of cranes. Whether it’s the duet of a dancing pair or the crashing orchestra of thousands on migration, it’s a wonderfully evocative call of the wild. For centuries, it has been lost from the British countryside but, at long last, Grus grus, the common crane, is back and it is something to celebrate.

Rewilding and reintroductions may be the conservationist’s favourite buzzwords currently but, occasionally, birds take us by surprise and re-establish themselves here naturally. Two species did this in the 20th century. The first was the osprey, which started breeding again in Scotland in 1954 after an absence of nearly half a century. Much more surprising was the return of the crane: the pair that bred successfully in the Norfolk Broads in 1981 was the first to do so for several centuries.

The birds survived in the East Anglian fens until the time of the Tudors and must have once been considerably more widespread, for more than 250 British place names refer to them. Northern populations are migratory, so it’s probable that flocks of Scandinavian cranes once migrated through these islands en route to their wintering areas in southern Europe, with some possibly overwintering here.