PUBLISHED: 10:46 19 April
2018 | UPDATED: 10:46 19 April 2018
Common cranes have bred for the
first time at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust’s Welney Wetland Centre.
The rare birds arrived on March
21 and nested within sight of the reserve’s visitor centre.
At 4ft tall, the adults can
easily be seen with binoculars. The pair have been seen sharing the
responsibility of brooding the eggs, swapping over every couple of hours.
The chicks are only about 6ins
tall (15cm) when they hatch, and are quickly able to walk, swim and run. Over
the next 10 weeks both the parent birds will protect these precious chicks from
predation and teach them how to find the food they need to grow.
Centre manager Leigh Marshall
said: “The area of wetlands that the cranes have chosen to nest on is less than
ten years old, and was previously arable farmland. The development of this
habitat was specifically for wet springs, such as the one we have experienced
this year, when the Ouse Washes are storing water to protect the surrounding
land and communities.
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