BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JWN Andrewes" data-source="post: 3359325" data-attributes="member: 7131">19th FebruaryA morning of relaxation, the boys were due some time off for good behaviour, so had a session letting rip in a favourite playground in Cambridge, and then it was noses to the grindstone once more. We headed out for lunch, found a Garden Centre near Manea that served decent fare, and then set to in earnest. The plan was to work the roads north of Manea looking for Cranes, but we we'd barely touched the outskirts of the village when two hulking great shapes cruised low over the road. Car was quickly abandoned at the roadside as we jumped out to enjoy these two brutes as they headed off to the north. Pressure's off lads, second target down, COMMON CRANE bagged! The birds had headed north, so we tried to track them down, but to no avail, though roadside Whoopers were good value. We dropped in to Ouse Washes RSPB next, but while it is I'm sure an excellent reserve (not been for years) water levels seemed pretty high and for actual birding it was quite grim. Plenty of birds, for sure, but all mega mega distant. Best spots were a flock of Fieldfare bouncing around a ploughed field behind one of the hides and dozens of Tree Sparrows on the feeders (correctly called by the eldest while I was attempting to track down any useful site info in the visitor centre (shed with posters), to no avail).Decided to do another circuit north of Manea to try and track down some Cranes on the deck, and a lone bird in flight pitched down where we could scope it, and turned out to have joined two others, possibly the two from earlier in the day, location fitted. Scanning for Owls from the road on the way back to Cambridge proved fruitless, but no one minded.</blockquote>

Verification