The Common or Eurasian Crane is an extremely rare bird in the UK. Some describe it as Britain’s rarest resident breeder but surely the Cattle Egrets that bred this year for the first time or the Spoonbills breeding in Scotland may just have some say in that. Never the less for Devon it is an extremely unusual and very very rare visitor, only the second in the last few years. Now I don’t consider myself a twitcher, that is someone who who just wants to tick a name on a list, but I just couldn’t resist going down to Modbury, about 40 miles West, to see if I could get a look and a photo. The Rare Bird Alert Web Site had given very accurate details and what had I to lose. The Chinees Scooter stayed in the garage, just a bit too far for her, and now armed with a brand new 1.4 convertor for the Pentax away I went. Following the directions perfectly I pulled up to the gate as instructed and looked down into the “stubble” field and there it was. Firstly I couldn’t believe how far away it was from this recommended vantage point, you would never ever be able to see it with the naked eye. But once I had it in my sights I was really wowed by this really exotic bird. The almost ridiculous ‘bushy” tail and long neck made it seem as though I was now in Africa, it just did not seem to fit in with the landscape.

This shot is from that vantage point and even with the 1.4 convertor on this is the nearest I could make it look! You can se that it is feeding, head down most of the time and obviously finding lots of wasted seed from the harvest. From time to time it would stand up to it’s full height and have a good look around, probably a defensive thing, but then resume feeding immediately. After a while i decided to go back down into the valley and cross the field for a nearer view, I could see a gap in the hedge and I thought that I would be able to get a much better shot. Well yes I did get closer but by now the sun was very low and in fact went behind a big black cloud so bad light and a difficult vantage point through the gap in the hedge made a good shot impossible. But I did manage one or two for the record as they say, the one at the top and this one.

You can just about see that it has a lovely red eye and is very elegant. So this is another lifetime first for me. I have seen Sandhill Crane and Whooping Crane regularly in the USA but to see this in our county is a really special sighting.

Just as an aside I managed to at last get that special in-flight shot of the Black-tailed Godwit this morning. I had been trying since August and never managed to get it either close enough, in the frame or in focus but this morning it came together. This has been eclipsed by the Crane though. Never the less. Here is the photo. Double click on it and it will open in it’s own large window.

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