Tony Polack, marketing manager of the nonprofit conservation group Norfolk Wildlife Trust, said: "It's always been the private landowner's wish that there's no publicity. His attitude is not to make cranes a conservation icon—as happened with ospreys—but that the best way of conserving the birds is to not allow people access to them."
Polack concedes, however, that the crane population has grown enough that their location has become an open secret among many bird-watching enthusiasts. Eventually the birds' whereabouts will become known among the wider public, Polack says. Given the cranes' size and noisy call, it's surprising this hasn't already happened.
The Eurasian crane grows up to four feet (1.2 meters) in height. Its high, trumpeting call carries at least 6 kilometers (3.7 miles). In short, it's a hard bird to ignore.
The crane has light to dark blue-gray plumage and a crimson cap at the back of its crown. The wing and tail feathers resemble the bustle on a Victorian lady's dress, bulking up the bird's otherwise spare frame.
Ornithologists believe the draining of eastern England's once extensive wetlands—particularly the Fens, a massive marshland wilderness that covered much of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and West Norfolk—was mainly responsible for the Eurasian crane's disappearance. The last reliable breeding record for the species dates back to 1542, during the reign of King Henry VIII.
"We lost quite a lot of other species, like the spoonbill and purple heron, which still breed just across the North Sea in the Netherlands," Ogilvie said.
Medieval Delicacy
Hunting almost certainly contributed to the crane's demise. The bird was considered a delicacy in medieval times. King John (1199-1216) is said to have satisfied his appetite for roasted crane with the help of huge gyr falcons—the most lethal weapons in a falconer's armory.
However, by the time Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth I, reached the throne, it seems the Eurasian crane was already extremely scarce. A feast to celebrate the queen's visit to the Fens in 1577 included 70 bitterns, 28 herons, and 12 spoonbills—but just a single crane.
It's not clear where the founding members of the current Norfolk crane colony came from. "There's a big migration of tens of thousands of cranes between wintering grounds in Spain and Sweden, where many of them breed. Every so often a few of these get blown off course and end up in Britain," Ogilvie said. "Perhaps they thought it was a nicer place than Sweden."
Whatever the reason behind the birds' arrival in Britain, the colony no longer migrates.
Phil Grice, chief ornithologist at English Nature, the lead U.K. government wildlife agency, said more stray birds would be welcome, especially now that significant work has been done to make England a more attractive destination to wetland birds.
"English Nature and others have put a lot of effort into reed bed restoration and creation in the last ten years, particularly in the hope of attracting the bittern [a rare marshland heron]," Grice said. "Lots of European Union money has gone into it as well."
In addition to the Norfolk Broads, suitable sites for Eurasian cranes now exist along the north Norfolk coast, along the Humber River estuary east of Leeds, and in wetland areas in southern England, Grice said.
It may not be long before the secret of the crane's remarkable U.K. homecoming will be something to shout about.
For more on cranes and other birds, scroll down for related stories and links.
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