Two calling cranes moving south-west over Meare at 10.30 today. (Gone is the thrill of knowing they were wild wanderers looking for a new home - although, of course, they might be!)

Thanks for that Sandra. I thought I heard Cranes from my house in Westhay this morning but didn't see them.

4 Common cranes circling Kingsbury Episcopi at 12- 30 .Looks like they may have been checking out West Moor.

Cranes over Crewkerne
Three adults flew over this morning going south at 7.15am. Good views of them through bins with the low sun behind me and I could not see any colour rings. Lovely sight, does that count as a garden tick? :)

2 Common Cranes in Westmoor At 8-30 am, Then scared off by dog walkers and flying off towards Langport.

5 Common Cranes in Westmoor seen through our kitchen window while we were having lunch, Checked at 1-30 pm and saw 3 fly towards Langport. A single one flew in same direction at 1 -45 pm .No sign of the other one.

I was out on West Moor (Hambridge) doing this month's WeBS count this morning; all five Cranes were colour-ringed from the Great Crane Project.

If anyone has noted any of the ring colour combinations, that would be very interesting for the Great Crane project. Just this last week they have suddenly become more unpredictable and are 'pairing' up (sometimes in 3s or 4s).

Only recently have they been seen to take an interest in the land south of the A378. 18 birds were noted today flying south from their usual locations north of the A378.

Sat 15 Cranes in same spot on aller moor 13 counted all colour - ringed

A pair of cranes on King's Moor (east of Long Load) was a welcome addition to my WeBS count on March 16th

While counting the Heronry at Midelney this afternoon took the opportunity to scan Westmoor from a middle vantage point - Counted 18 Cranes scattered from one side to the other in groups of up to six,(sorry Kevin ,some colour rings were visible but didn't have a pencil), good number of Pintail in the middle amongst the Wigeon and Teal and a big fat looking Peregrine sat on a post. Where I was viewing from I hasten to add is private land - tried to see them from Hambridge/Burrow Hill road after but not visible from there without spuddling down the muddy droves which I didn't fancy without wellies !

At least 8 on Curry Moor today. Several pairs dancing.

Just to add to the crane news, there were 2 cranes flying over Town Tree Nature Garden at noon on Monday 17th, calling enthusiastically. They were coming from Long Load direction and heading to Kingsbury Episcopi where it appeared that they were preparing to land. John Rickards and I tried to locate them but to no avail.
Could be the pair reported on 16th from King's Moor.

12 on westmoor at noon today in groups of 2+2+1+7 - too far away to see rings.The floodwaters have receded a lot since Monday with the duck getting concentrated near the Thorney end - the Peregrine sat on a post close to them. 4 pairs of Lapwing.

Walking Westmoor at Kingsbury Episcopi this morning, First time since Christmas, saw 2 Cranes fly in from the Martock direction and land on west side of the moor. Could be the ones that were seen at Town Tree farm Nr Martock. Also 8 Snipe and 50-60 Fieldfare and Redwings which was surprising this late.

21-March-2014
Today’s single Common Crane at Catcott Lows Reserve was colour ringed…
Left-leg: black over blue over black = UK originated bird.
Right leg: red over blue over yellow = un-named, but known as red-blue-yellow, with yellow (the bottom colour-ring) showing that it was part of the releases in 2013.

Year of release shown by bottom colour-ring on right leg, as follows…
Red = 2010
White = 2011
Blue = 2012
Yellow = 2013

Info taken from www.thegreatcraneproject.org.uk

Lovely sight early yesterday morning of some 13 Cranes flying high over Curry Moor. They seemed unsure where to go and spent almost 30 mins flying around and around. Sometimes a few would drop out the sky in a "whiffle" movement but then slowly fly back up to the others. In the end they headed off in the direction of West Sedge Moor

12 Cranes again this morning at Westmoor.

12.30, Tuesday, "strange" (to me) calling. Looked up, high over West Hatch, south of Taunton, 5 cranes heading south west, over Blackdowns, honiton/ Seaton direction?

14 circling Curry Moor this morning,very vocal.

14 very vocal Common Cranes on Westmoor this morning, also 15-20 Snipe, 4 Reed Buntings and 2 Skylarks.

Could only see 4 Cranes last Monday , but there were 2 Curlew.

During the floods the cranes have been spending a lot of time on aller moor on Tuesday the 1st of april I counted 36 birds calling and flying around.

Sat 5th Apr at 14:45 - 3 Cranes appeared from a Somerset direction and cicled over Chapmanslade (Wilts) and headed in a south-easterly direction towards Salisbury Plain

yesterday at 14.15, 4 cranes circled over garden in Moorland then flew off West

2 on Westmoor late this pm , and 8 Grey Heron nests in the Heronry had young Herons clambering around the branches - should fledge very soon...

Three cranes, presumably, heading west between East and West Chinnock tonight at 7.20pm. As they were flying into the sun I could only see their silhouettes, but if not Cranes then I don't know what they were!

Hi Mike,
They were Cranes! Adam Gale also noticed them and texted me, so I whipped over there quickly and watched them with him for a short while. All colour-ringed, so reintroduction birds as expected. They were in a field on the west side of the A356 just south of Chiselborough at cST460145 (where the road crosses a stream). Still there at 8pm when I left them.

Thanks Julian, good news. I must admit I never thought I would ever have Cranes as "local" birds to my home in Somerset! :)

Maybe the same 3 were seen high over Westmoor/Burrow Hill that afternoon heading SW about 3.30 .

...and before that probably the same 3 were in the field between Langport Tescos and the railway viaduct about 1.30 - customers were looking at them from the car park...my niece who works there told me today.