The Lost Fens by Ian D. Rotherham

Author:Ian D. Rotherham
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752492681
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

THE COMMON CRANE IN ENGLAND

With their loud bugling call, cranes were once a familiar sight across Britain’s wetlands, giving rise to place names and family names such as Cranfield, Cranmer, Cranwell, Crane, Cranbourne and Cranbrook. An obvious and distinctive bird, they have a long cultural history in Britain, they feature on illuminated manuscripts, and appeared on the menus for major feasts, such as King Henry III’s feast at York in 1251. Cranes are mainly grey all over rather like a grey heron, but with black, white and red markings on the head and neck. They feed on roots, shoots, and leaves of meadow and marshland plants as well as on small animals such as voles and frogs.

The name ‘common crane’ reflects the wide breeding range in Europe and across Asia, and their former relative abundance in our wetlands. They nest on the ground in marshy vegetation. With a 7ft (2m) wingspan and a loud bugling call, the common crane is a genuine wildlife spectacle.

The common crane occurs widely in Europe, where again, populations have suffered from major wetland loss. However, persecution and the large-scale drainage of the Fens for agriculture, led to its loss as a British breeding bird by about 1600. By the mid-twentieth century just small numbers have visited eastern and southern England each year on migration. A small number returned to the Norfolk Broads as early as 1979, but, perhaps because of the still precarious state of wetlands during the late twentieth century, although they have bred there successfully, the population remained isolated and vulnerable for some time. However, they have more recently colonised the newly created Lakenheath Fen and are beginning to spread into the East Anglian Fens. They have also now returned to the South Yorkshire fenlands and have even been sighted over cities like Sheffield.

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