21 Cranes released onto the Somerset Levels

30/09/2010 09:00:00 The story of the cranes release
By Amy King and Roland Digby - The crane's surrogate parents

September 2010. So, the day in question finally arrived and it was time to release the cranes. Although it was a bit more blustery than we might have liked, we decided that, because of the nature of the release site and the bird's clear attachment to their grey suited parents and release site, things would be OK. Compared to other releases this was always going to be different, for the main part I am pretty sure that no other UK releases have costumed handlers leading the birds in question out of their pen.

Gates opened - Birds very cautious
With a small amount of trepidation, the gates of the pen were opened, allowing the birds to come out at their own pace. Although the young birds are very inquisitive, they are also very cautious. When talking with people not accustomed to bird releases, they often are of the opinion that it is like a release of white doves at a concert. However, in reality the birds can take a long time to come out with some birds preferring to stay where they feel safe for up to a day or two, until curiosity over comes their fear of the unknown.

 

Group flights around the area (Richard Austin)

Flight was very frightening experience
For us it was no different, although about four of the birds did decide to make maiden flights unrestricted by the roof of their pen. This appeared to be an especially frightening experience for one of the birds; having never flown higher than about 3 meters the bird was suddenly lifted up on the wind. Each time the bird tried to come into land through its lack of experience it tried to land with the wind in its tail thus, causing it to accelerate and therefore, have to gain height and make another circuit to avoid crashing into the ground. Eventually after four circuits of the pen and a period of time which although seeming like an eternity was probably no more than a minute, the bird twigged that it needed to land into the wind and was able to make a controlled landing in a field adjacent to the pen. The other three birds who had decided to fly out, in a somewhat more measured way than the first one, were waiting for it. The rest of the birds that had decided to leave the inner pens decided to follow on foot, and so ensued the bizarre site of Amy, a professional photographer and myself all in grey crane suits heading out of the main pen followed by fifteen or so cranes.

Amy and Roland exploring with the birds (Richard Austin)

Decoys
For their first venture into the unknown (the other side of the fence), we stayed close to home. The first port of call was a set of decoys positioned about thirty meters from the fence line of the main pen. These were very important, as they would help to attract any birds that fly out of the pen and prevent them from straying too far, too early. Their other equally important function was to draw any birds that left the pen but wanted to return to the decoys rather than the fence, where they would be able to fly over, rather than pace the fence line where they would be extremely vulnerable to predation by foxes. A small amount of grain had been spread under the decoys to develop an association between them and suitable food. We stayed around the decoys for an hour or so, which gave the birds a chance to explore the surrounding area, which was extremely rich in insects, keeping the young cranes more than amused and giving them an invaluable lesson in the art of successful foraging.

The cranes exploring their enclosure

Following their parents
It is fair to say that all went extremely well with the birds all learning very quickly how to fly in an out of the pen. The main good points were that the decoys worked exactly to plan and also that the birds automatically roosted in water in the pen. We did however have some problems with a few of the birds now free from the constraints of the pen decided that they wanted to try and follow Amy and myself when we tried to leave. After a couple of abortive attempts to leave in suits, we quickly made an escape over a small bridge near the pen when the birds were not looking. This allowed us to nip behind some bushes, quickly take off our suits and become scary people again. This fact was not lost on the birds which flew over the hedge from the pen, promptly getting the shock of its life and sending it flying back to the pen rather sharply!

Surrogate parenting has a limit - Potential problems

 One of the problems that is going to face the young cranes is that in the wild a young crane follows its parents throughout the winter, until they are driven off at the start of the following breeding season. During this time, the young birds watch and mimic their parent's activities in order that they can learn how to exploit all of the different food sources that are available throughout the year. It is also worth noting that the parents will continue to feed the youngsters choice titbits, even though the young birds are capable of feeding themselves. Clearly although we cannot be around to do this for them, we can provide them with a supplementary source of food to get them started and a safe predator free place to come back to and roost. The rest however will be up to them.