This week we have been delighted by three cranes spending a night on the reserve; they arrived on Tuesday afternoon and departed just before 9am the next morning, heading high to the south east, before drifting west and disappearing into a clear blue sky.


Whether any of these three birds are the same as last year's pair, we can only speculate, but it would be nice to think that one of them at least remembered last April's stopover and decided to call in again.


As last year's crane reappeared several times over the following two weeks, it will be interesting to see whether this group does the same. While here, the three birds spent most of their time feeding in the shallow flood and damp grassland of the north brooks, looking quite relaxed and at home among the groups of greylag geese and displaying lapwings.


Other more usual migrants that have appeared on the reserve in the last two weeks have been the first chiffchaffs and a single singing blackcap, a couple of wheatears, a few groups of sand martins and two little ringed plovers. All these species are exactly as one would expect, and are a typical list of the first migrants of the spring here.


For full feature see West Sussex Gazette March 26