Common Crane on the garden list!

I joined MH at The Point this morning for more vis migging/sea watching. The sea was very quiet, the only interest was the juvenile Pomarine Skua beating up the gulls. Overhead passage was much slower than yesterday with no exceptional numbers of passerines. 

At the observatory plenty of Goldcrests and Chiffchaffs being ringed along with a few Redpolls, though the trapping area was seemingly quiet but plenty of migrants in the Moat.

PB had seen 2 Dartford Warblers at Galloways, after missing yesterdays one I made my way there dropping in home on the way. While having a coffee in the garden 4 Common Buzzards flew low over.  

1 of 4 Common Buzzards over Plodland. Pity they were all straight into the sun.

At Galloways I joined Dave brown and family but the Dartford Warblers were long gone, however we did see 9+ Stonechats, 2 Whinchats and 13+ Common Buzzards.

I went back home for lunch and had just started eating when Dave Brown phoned me to say a Crane was flying over reserve, I dashed out of the house and scanned across the fields, spotting it and firing some long distance record shots.  

 Common Crane from the Plodland garden(Heavily cropped)

 Common Crane Dengemarsh

After calling other locals I drove to Dengemarsh, where I had some better views of the bird as it circled around causing the 100s of Greylag Geese to take to the air all calling loudly also a Bittern. It eventually landed in the fields at the back of Dengemarsh out of view, so myself and CT parked at Springfield Bridge and started to walk around to the hide. As we crossed the bridge the Crane flew across the lake spooking all the Greylags again, then landed in the field in front of us giving us superb views. A short video of the Crane can be seen HERE .  Thanks to Dave for the call and Steve for spotting it coming in over the power station.

  Common Crane Dengemarsh

 Common Crane Dengemarsh

This evening at the Egret roost 10 Great White Egrets and 19 Little Egrets came into the ARC roost but no Cattle Egret.