15.05.2025 - Indoor Meeting : The Norfolk Cranes' Story

Speaker: Chris Durdin
Report: Steph Plaster

May’s talk was by Chris Durdin from Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays who is also a local ornithologist (ex RSPB), a singer in a Norwich barbershop quartet (Mustard) and also a tour guide at Thorpe
Marshes for the NWT. He eloquently told us about the wonderful story of how the Common Crane (Grus grus), Britain’s tallest bird, made a natural return (not an artificial reintroduction) to Norfolk in the late 1970’s. Cranes were once a common feature of the British countryside back in the middle ages, but sadly they were extinct as a breeding bird in the UK by around the 1600’s. The talk was based on the book ‘The Norfolk Cranes’ Story’ which was written by John Buxton MBE (1927- 2014) and Chris Durdin and first published in 2011 with a later edition with an obituary for John Buxton published in 2019.

Chris expertly told the story beginning with the co-author’s father, Major Anthony Buxton (1882 - 1970), purchasing the large Horsey Estate in northeast Norfolk in 1930. This remote estate consisted of around 1700 acres of marshland, Horsey Mere and Horsey Hall plus the valuable wildlife habitat of extensive reed beds. Anthony Buxton found the whole area to be a wonderful peaceful landscape that contained many rare and beautiful birds, including Marsh Harrier, and as the talk progressed we heard how Cranes also made their home here in Norfolk.
The story is a fascinating tale involving much secrecy and patience by many people to ensure that the crane became firmly established as a breeding bird once again.
The first pair of cranes arrived at Horsey in September 1979, when tenant farmer, Frank Starling rang John Buxton to tell him that he’d ‘Just seen the biggest bloody herons I have ever seen in my life’ - in
fact two of them. The photo below shows the pair of cranes which were the first to have nested in Britain for 400 years.
The large dark ‘bustle’ at the rear of the bird is in fact a set of secondary feathers used for display purposes as cranes are known for their exuberant dancing and displays.
Chris explained how the cranes arrived in 1979 and stayed on in 1980 but did not breed that year. They left the area in early April 1980 but were then seen to come back later that month with a third crane in tow. John Buxton concluded that this was a pair of cranes and a tagged-on singleton. These observations were all recorded by John Buxton in a notebook and he was able to recognise individual birds by now as males are always larger than females. Another bird was seen in 1981 to make two pairs, and they did attempt to breed with two eggs laid, but a lone chick was subsequently lost to an unknown predator (which could have been a fox or badger).
It was not until 1982 that a pair raised a single male chick which was the first one to survive in the UK for over 400 years. It was kept a secret as egg collecting was still rife back in the 1980’s and the
cranes would have been a serious target. Luckily the remoteness and privacy of the estate was a factor in keeping the secret as there was plenty of anecdotal chat and rumours of cranes being present somewhere in the Norfolk Broads. At one stage the cranes eggs were marked with invisible ink by Mike Everett, an assistant at Horsey, so if an egg collector found them they could later be identified if the thief got caught. This practice was abandoned soon afterwards as it caused too much disturbance to the birds. Luckily egg collectors were kept at bay.
From 1983 to 1986 there were another two chicks raised in the area and in 1984 a dead crane was found washed up on Mundesley beach and was thought to have been a wild bird, not one of the established pairs, thus proving that birds were naturally migrating to Norfolk from The Continent again.
By 1988 there were now seven cranes established at Horsey although the birds did not reproduce at all from 1989 to 1996. By 1992 Pensthorpe was also experimenting with raising crane chicks as six eggs were taken from Horsey to Fakenham, but sadly this attempt failed. From 1997 to 2000 a pair of cranes were seen in Scotland and in 1997 there were four young cranes recorded in Norfolk and in 1999 two more. No young were seen in 2001, but in 2003 cranes were seen to be nesting at Hickling for the first time. The NWT reserve at Hickling seen below, is now one of the best places to see cranes in Norfolk.
Cranes are now regularly seen at Lakenheath Fen and some also appeared in East Yorkshire. They often fly over the Wensum Valley area, as noted recently by some members lucky enough to see them (in 2024 there were nine records of flyovers - see WVBS Annual report). In 2015 there were thirty pairs in the UK and by 2023 there were thought to be around 80 pairs. Cranes can also be seen in The Yare Valley at RSPB Strumpshaw, and Welney is also a good place to spot them, although as with any bird they can turn up anywhere, especially along the coast (I’ve seen them at Stiffkey). The second part of Chris’s talk was about cranes in general as he explained a bit about how they fly, migrate, display and dance and make that distinct bugling call. He then finished the evening with a film show made by the RSPB about how cranes were hatched and raised at the WWT in Slimbridge with the staff feeding the chicks having to wear baggy grey overalls so that the young birds did not imprint on the human figure. This breeding programme was deemed a success as ninety-three chicks were bred there and released to secret locations in Somerset.
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​Reintroduced crane from Slimbridge with its young .
As regards Cranes in Europe - we have a long way to go - The WWT estimates there are around 200 birds in the UK now, but we were told that there are around 258,358 cranes wintering in Spain and they are common in Finland, Sweden, France and Germany too. Spain is a good place to see cranes as they gather in large numbers in northern Europe in late October and early November and then fly over The Pyrenees into Spain, especially to the region of Extremadura where they’ll feed in the cork oaks forests (known as Dehesas) on Holm oak and Cork oak acorns. They will also find food on agricultural land and in paddy fields which are also found in this area.
This was a fascinating talk and everyone was enthralled with the presentation and film, plus Chris also brought along signed hardback and paperback copies of his book for us to purchase at a very reasonable price and I can say that the book is a great read and well worth getting a copy if you have the chance. A very good evening all around!