Common Cranes

A trip to RSPB Lakenheath today to attempt to get a photo of the elusive Golden Orioles, although they were in good voice we failed to catch sight of them and we also failed to see but heard booming Bitterns & Cuckooing Cuckoos. Highlights of what we did see were Marsh Harriers, Hobbys a pair of Garganey and todays photo a family of Cranes.

There were a lot of folk at Lakenheath today, the warm weather had brought out the visitors including two coach loads. The Crane family, two adults and a juvenile were foraging in the meadow grass fairly close to one of the footpaths, so with so many folk around we were urged not to linger in the area. So I quickly took a few handheld shots, the sun as you can see was in the wrong direction, so it's not a good photo of Cranes, but I like its atmosphere.

After one circuit of the reserve we returned to the car for a late lunch. We then headed out for a second circuit, but the heat made it exceedingly tiring. Poor weather, it just can't win. Complaining about the cold and rain last week, complaining about the heat this week. Anyway we decided a drive to Weeting Heath to attempt to see the Stone Curlews from a nice cool hide was a more sensible option than continuing with the circuit.

We've actually never seen Stone Curlews, but with Weeting Heath being the place to see them and it only being a couple of miles from Lakenheath off we set. The hide was nearly full when we arrived and fairly quickly we spotted a couple sitting reasonably close by. Mrs L spotted them first and just saw one of them sit down. I missed that excitement. For the next forty minutes they just sat there fairly motionless. The hide emptied. With only the two of us remaining though our patience was rewarded as they started wandering about and we got some reasonable photos - check out RCB's Blip. A good end to a good but tiring day.